Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo | Page 6

quietly. "If so, I should like to say a
few preliminary words which would, I hope, place the matter at once
beyond the possibility of any misunderstanding."
Draconmeyer moved a little uneasily in his place.
"I have other things to say," he declared, "yet I would gladly hear what
is in your mind at the present moment. You do not, I fear, approve of
this friendship between my wife and Lady Hunterleys."
Hunterleys was uncompromising, almost curt.
"I do not," he agreed. "It is probably no secret to you that my wife and I
are temporarily estranged," he continued. "The chief reason for that
estrangement is that I forbade her your house or your acquaintance."
Draconmeyer was a little taken back. Such extreme directness of
speech was difficult to deal with.
"My dear Sir Henry," he protested, "you distress me. I do not
understand your attitude in this matter at all."

"There is no necessity for you to understand it," Hunterleys retorted
coolly. "I claim the right to regulate my wife's visiting list. She denies
that right."
"Apart from the question of marital control," Mr. Draconmeyer
persisted, "will you tell me why you consider my wife and myself unfit
persons to find a place amongst Lady Hunterleys' acquaintances?"
"No man is bound to give the reason for his dislikes," Hunterleys
replied. "Of your wife I know nothing. Nobody does. I have every
sympathy with her unfortunate condition, and that is all. You
personally I dislike. I dislike my wife to be seen with you, I dislike
having her name associated with yours in any manner whatsoever. I
dislike sitting with you here myself. I only hope that the five minutes'
conversation which you have asked for will not be exceeded."
Mr. Draconmeyer had the air of a benevolent person who is deeply
pained.
"Sir Henry," he sighed, "it is not possible for me to disregard such plain
speaking. Forgive me if I am a little taken aback by it. You are known
to be a very skilful diplomatist and you have many weapons in your
armoury. One scarcely expected, however--one's breath is a little taken
away by such candour."
"I am not aware," Hunterleys said calmly, "that the question of
diplomacy need come in when one's only idea is to regulate the
personal acquaintances of oneself and one's wife."
Mr. Draconmeyer sat quite still for a moment, stroking his black beard.
His eyes were fixed upon the carpet. He seemed to be struggling with a
problem.
"You have taken the ground from beneath my feet," he declared. "Your
opinion of me is such that I hesitate to proceed at all in the matter
which I desired to discuss with you."
"That," Hunterleys replied, "is entirely for you to decide. I am perfectly

willing to listen to anything you have to say--all the more ready
because now there can be no possibility of any misunderstanding
between us."
"Very well," Mr. Draconmeyer assented, "I will proceed. After all, I am
not sure that the personal element enters into what I was about to say. I
was going to propose not exactly an alliance--that, of course, would not
be possible--but I was certainly going to suggest that you and I might
be of some service to one another."
"In what way?"
"I call myself an Englishman," Mr. Draconmeyer went on. "I have
made large sums of money in England, I have grown to love England
and English ways. Yet I came, as you know, from Berlin. The position
which I hold in your city is still the position of president of the greatest
German bank in the world. It is German finance which I have directed,
and with German money I have made my fortune. To be frank with you,
however, after these many years in London I have grown to feel myself
very much of an Englishman."
Hunterleys was sitting perfectly still. His face was rigid but
expressionless. He was listening intently.
"On the other hand," Mr. Draconmeyer proceeded slowly, "I wish to be
wholly frank with you. At heart I must remain always a German. The
interests of my country must always be paramount. But listen. In
Germany there are, as you know, two parties, and year by year they are
drawing further apart. I will not allude to factions. I will speak broadly.
There is the war party and there is the peace party. I belong to the peace
party. I belong to it as a German, and I belong to it as a devoted friend
of England, and if the threatened conflict between the two should come,
I should take my stand as a peace-loving German-cum-Englishman
against the war party even of my own country."
Hunterleys still made no sign. Yet for one who knew him it was easy to
realise