When George Wentworth received this message, he read it several times
over before its full meaning dawned upon him. Then he paced up and down
his room, and gave way to his feelings. His best friends, who had been
privileged to hear George's vocabulary when he was rather angry, admitted
that the young man had a fluency of expression which was very more terse
than proper. When the real significance of the despatch became apparent
to him, George outdid himself in this particular line. Then he realized
that, however consolatory such language is to a very angry man, it does
little good in any practical way. He paced silently up and down the room,
wondering what he could do, and the more he wondered the less light he
saw through the fog. He put on his hat and went into the other room.
'Henry,' he said to his partner, 'do you know anybody who would lend me
twenty thousand pounds?'
Henry laughed. The idea of anybody lending that sum of money, except on
the very best security, was in itself extremely comic.
'Do you want it to-day?' he said.
'Yes, I want it to-day.'
'Well, I don't know any better plan than to go out into the street and
ask every man you meet if he has that sum about him. You are certain to
encounter men who have very much more than twenty thousand pounds, and
perhaps one of them, struck by your very sane appearance at the moment,
might hand over the sum to you. I think, however, George, that you would
be more successful if you met the capitalist in a secluded lane some
dark night, and had a good reliable club in your hand.'
'You are right,' said George. 'Of course, there is just as much
possibility of my reaching the moon as getting that sum of money on
short notice.'
'Yes, or on long notice either, I imagine. I know plenty of men who have
the money, but I wouldn't undertake to ask them for it, and I don't
believe you would. Still there is nothing like trying. He who tries may
succeed, but no one can succeed who doesn't try. Why not go to old
Longworth? He could let you have the money in a moment if he wanted to do
so. He knows you. What's your security? What are you going to do with
it--that eternal mine of yours?'
'Yes, that "eternal mine"; I want it to _be_ mine. That is why I need the
twenty thousand pounds.'
'Well, George, I don't see much hope for you. You never spoke to old
Longworth about it, did you? He wasn't one of the men you intended to get
into this company?'
'No, he was not. I wish he had been. He would have treated us better than
his rascally nephew has done.'
'Ah, that immaculate young man has been playing you tricks, has he?'
'He has played me one trick, which is enough.'
'Well, why don't you go and see the old man, and lay the case before him?
He treats that nephew as if he were his son. Now, a man will do a great
deal for his son, and perhaps old Longworth might do something for
his nephew.'
'Yes; but I should have to explain to him that his nephew is a
scoundrel.'
'Very well; that is just the kind of explanation to bring the twenty
thousand pounds. If his nephew really is a scoundrel, and you can prove
it, you could not want a better lever than that on the old man's
money-bags.'
'By Jove!' said Wentworth, 'I believe I shall try it. I want to let him
know, anyhow, what sort of man his nephew is. I'll go and see him.'
'I would,' said the other, turning to his work.
And so George Wentworth, putting the cablegram in his pocket, went to see
old Mr. Longworth in a frame of mind in which no man should see his
fellow-man. He did not wait to be announced, but walked, to the
astonishment of the clerk, straight through into Mr. Longworth's room. He
found the old man seated at his desk.
'Good-day, Mr. Wentworth,' said the financier cordially.
'Good-day,' replied George curtly. 'I have come to read a cable despatch
to you, or to let you read it.'
He threw the paper down before the old gentleman, who adjusted his
spectacles and read it. Then he looked up inquiringly at Wentworth.
'You don't understand it, do you?' said the latter.
'I confess I do not. The Longworth in this telegram does not refer to
me, does it?'
'No, it does not refer to you, but it refers to one of your house. Your
nephew, William Longworth, is a scoundrel!'
'Ah!' said the old man, placing the despatch on the desk again, and
removing his glasses, 'have you come to tell me that?'
'Yes, I have. Did you know it before?'
'No, I did not,' answered the old gentleman, his colour rising; 'and I
do not know it now. I know you say so, and I think very likely you will
be glad to take back what you have said. I will at least give you the
opportunity.'
'So far from taking it back, Mr. Longworth, I shall prove it. Your nephew
formed a partnership with my friend Kenyon and myself to float on the
London market a certain Canadian mine.'
'My dear sir,' broke in the old gentleman, 'I have no desire to hear of
my nephew's private speculations; I have nothing to do with them. I have
nothing to do with your mine. The matter is of no interest whatever to
me, and I must decline to hear anything about it. You are, also, if you
will excuse my saying so, not in a fit state of temper to talk to any
gentleman. If you like to come back here when you are calmer, I shall be
very pleased to listen to what you have to say.'
'I shall never be calmer on this subject. I have told you that your
nephew is a scoundrel. You are pleased to deny the accusation.'
'I do not deny it; I merely said I did not know it was the case, and I do
not believe it, that is all.'
'Very well; the moment I begin to show you proof that things are as
I say----'
'My dear sir,' cried the elder man, with some heat, 'you are not showing
proof. You are merely making assertions, and assertions about a man who
is absent--who is not here to defend himself. If you have anything to say
against William Longworth, come and say it when he is here, and he shall
answer for himself. It is cowardly of you, and ungenerous to me, to make
a number of accusations which I am in no wise able to refute.'
'Will you listen to what I have to say?'
'No; I will not.'
'Then, by God, you shall!' and with that Wentworth strode to the door and
turned the key, while the old man rose from his seat and faced him.
'Do you mean to threaten me, sir, in my own office?'
'I mean to say, Mr. Longworth, that I have made a statement which I am
going to prove to you. I mean that you shall listen to me, and listen to
me _now_!'
'And I say, if you have anything to charge against my nephew, come and
say it when he is here.'
'When he is here, Mr. Longworth, it will be too late to say it; at
present you can repair the injury he has done. When he returns to England
you cannot do so, no matter how much you might wish to make the attempt.'
The old man stood irresolute for a moment, then he sat down in his chair
again.
'Very well,' he said, with a sigh; 'I am not so combative as I once was.
Go on with your story.'
'My story is very short,' said Wentworth; 'it simply amounts to this:
You know your nephew formed a partnership with us in relation to the
Canadian mine?'
'I know nothing about it, I tell you,' answered Mr. Longworth.
'Very well, you know it now.'
'I know you say so.'
'Do you doubt my word?'
'I shall tell you more definitely when I hear what you have to say. Go
on.'
'Well, your nephew, pretending to aid us in forming this company, did
everything to retard our progress. He engaged offices that took a long
time to fit up, and which we had at last to take in hand ourselves. Then
he left for a week, leaving us no address, and refusing to answer the
letters I sent to his office for him. On one pretext or another, the
forming of the company was delayed; until at length, when the option by
which Mr. Kenyon held the mine had less than a month to run, your nephew
went to America in company with Mr. Melville, ostensibly to see and
report upon the property. After waiting a certain length of time and
hearing nothing from him (he had promised to cable us), Kenyon went to
America to get a renewal of the option. This cablegram explains his
success. He finds, on going there, that your nephew has secured the
option of the mine in his own name, and, as Kenyon says, we are cheated.
Now have you any doubt whether your nephew is a scoundrel or not?'
Mr. Longworth mused for a few moments on what the young man had told him.
'If what you say is exactly true, there is no doubt William has been
guilty of a piece of very sharp practice.'
'Sharp practice!' cried the other. 'You might as well call robbery sharp
practice!'
'My dear sir, I have listened to you; now I ask you to listen to me. If,
as I say, what you have stated is true, my nephew has done something
which I think an honourable man would not do; but as to that I cannot
judge until I hear his side of the story. It may put a different
complexion on the matter, and I have no doubt it will; but even granting
your version is true in every particular, what have I to do with it? I
am not responsible for my nephew's actions. He has entered into a
business connection, it seems, with two young men, and has outwitted
them. That is probably what the world would say about it. Perhaps, as
you say, he has been guilty of something worse, and has cheated his
partners. But even admitting everything to be true, I do not see how I
am responsible in any way.'
'Legally, you are not; morally, I think you are.'
'Why?'
'If he were your son----'
'But he is not my son; he is my nephew.'
'If your son had committed a theft, would you not do everything in your
power to counteract the evil he had done?'
'I might, and I might not. Some fathers pay their sons' debts, others do
not. I cannot say what action I should take in a purely imaginary case.'
'Very well; all I have to say is, our option runs out in two or three
days. Twenty thousand pounds will secure the mine for us. I want that
twenty thousand pounds before the option ceases.'
'And do you expect me to pay you twenty thousand pounds for this?'
'Yes, I do.'
Old Mr. Longworth leaned back in his office chair, and looked at the
young man in amazement.
'To think that you, a man of the City, should come to me, another man of
the City, with such an absurd idea in your head, is simply grotesque.'
'Then the name of the Longworths is nothing to you--the good name, I
mean?'
'The good name of the Longworths, my dear sir, is everything to me; but
I fancy it will be able to take care of itself without any assistance
from you.'
There was silence for a few moments. Then Wentworth said, in a voice of
suppressed anguish:
'I thought, Mr. Longworth, one of your family was a scoundrel; I now wish
to say I believe the epithet covers uncle as well as nephew. You have had
a chance to repair the mischief a member of your family has done. You
have answered me with contempt. You have not shown the slightest
indication of wishing to make amends.'
He unlocked the door.
'Come, now,' said old Mr. Longworth, rising, 'that will do, that will do,
Mr. Wentworth.' Then he pressed an electric bell, and, when the clerk
appeared, he said: 'Show this gentleman the door, please, and if ever he
calls here again, do not admit him.'
And so George Wentworth, clenching his hands with rage, was shown to the
door. He had the rest of the day to ponder on the fact that an angry man
seldom accomplishes his purpose.