At the Sign of the Eagle | Page 5

I've been there."
"How have you 'been there'?"
"I've owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my thumb."
Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him. "You must be very rich."
"Owning newspapers doesn't mean riches. It's a lever, though, for tipping the dollars your way."
"I suppose they have--tipped your way?"
"Yes: pretty well. But, don't follow this lead any farther, Lady Lawless, or you may come across something that will give you a start. I should like to keep on speaking terms with you."
"You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and live in the glare of a search-light also?"
"Exactly. You can't make millions without pulling wires."
She saw him watching the girl on her husband's arm. She had the instinct of her sex. She glanced at the stately girl again; then at Mr. Vandewaters critically, and rejoined, quizzically: "Did you--make millions?"
His eyes still watching, he replied abstractedly. "Yes: a few handfuls, and lost a few--'that's why I'm here.'"
"To get them back on the London market?"
"That's why I am here."
"You have not come in vain?"
"I could tell you better in a month or so from now. In any case, I don't stand to lose. I've come to take things away from England."
"I hope you will take away a good opinion of it."
"If there'd been any doubt of it half an hour ago, it would be all gone this minute."
"Which is nice of you; and not in your usual vein, I should think. But, Mr. Vandewaters, we want you to come to Craigruie, our country place, to spend a week. Then you will have a chance to judge us better, or rather more broadly and effectively." She was looking at the girl, and at that moment she caught Sir Duke's eye. She telegraphed to him to come.
"Thank you, Lady Lawless, I'm glad you have asked me. But--" He glanced to where Mr. Pride was being introduced to the young lady on Sir Duke's arm, and paused.
"We are hoping," she added, interpreting his thought, and speaking a little dryly, "that your friend, Mr. Stephen Pride"--the name sounded so ludicrous--"will join us."
"He'll be proud enough, you may be sure. It's a singular combination, Pride and myself, isn't it? But, you see, he has a fortune which, as yet, he has never been able to handle for himself; and I do it for him. We are partners, and, though you mightn't think it, he has got more money now than when he put his dollars at my disposal to help me make a few millions at a critical time."
Lady Lawless let her fan touch Mr. Vandewaters's arm. "I am going to do you a great favour. You see that young lady coming to us with my husband? Well, I am going to introduce you to her. It is such as she-- such women--who will convince you--"
"Yes?"
"--that you have yet to make your--what shall I call it?--Ah, I have it: your 'biggest deal,'--and, in truth, your best."
"Is that so?" rejoined Vandewaters musingly. "Is that so? I always thought I'd make my biggest deal in the States. Who is she? She is handsome."
"She is more than handsome, and she is the Honourable Gracia Raglan."
"I don't understand about 'The Honourable.'"
"I will explain that another time."
A moment later Miss Raglan, in a gentle bewilderment, walked down the ballroom on the arm of the millionaire, half afraid that something gauche would happen; but by the time she had got to the other end was reassured, and became interested.
Sir Duke said to his wife in an aside, before he left her with Mr. Vandewaters's financial partner: "What is your pretty conspiracy, Molly?"
"Do talk English, Duke, and do not interfere."
A few hours later, on the way home, Sir Duke said: "You asked Mr. Pride too?"
"Yes; I grieve to say."
"Why grieve?"
"Because his experiences with us seem to make him dizzy. He will be terribly in earnest with every woman in the house, if--"
"If you do not keep him in line yourself?"
"Quite so. And the creature is not even interesting."
"Cast your eye about. He has millions; you have cousins."
"You do not mean that, Duke? I would see them in their graves first. He says 'My lady' every other sentence, and wants to send me flowers, and a box for the opera, and to drive me in the Park."
Her husband laughed. "I'll stake my life he can't ride. You will have him about the place like a tame cat." Then, seeing that his wife was annoyed: "Never mind, Molly, I will help you all I can. I want to be kind to them."
"I know you do. But what is your 'pretty conspiracy,' Duke?"
"A well-stocked ranche in Colorado." He did not mean it. And she knew it.
"How can you be so mercenary?" she replied.
Then they both laughed, and said that