The Cinema Murder | Page 9

Mr. Greene beamed with satisfaction.
"Well, I am glad to hear you've come across my stuff," he declared. "I've made some
name for myself on the films and I am proud of it. Raymond Greene it is, at your
service."
"Joseph P. Hyam's mine," the large American announced, watching the disappearance of
his soup plate with an air of regret. "I'm in the clothing business. If my wife were here,
she'd say you wouldn't think it to look at me. Never was faddy about myself, though," he
added, with a glance at Mr. Greene's very correct dinner attire.

"You ought to remember me, Mr. Greene," one of the two men remarked from the
right-hand side of the table. "I've played golf with you at Baltusrol more than once."
Mr. Greene glanced surreptitiously at the card and smiled.
"Why, it's James P. Busby, of course!" he exclaimed. "Your father's the Busby Iron
Works, isn't he?"
The young man nodded.
"And this is Mr. Caroll, one of our engineers," he said, indicating a rather rough-looking
personage by his side.
"Delighted to meet you both," Mr. Greene assured them. "Say, I remember your golf, Mr.
Busby! You're some driver, eh? And those long putts of yours--you never took three on
any green that I can remember!"
"Been playing in England?" the young man asked.
Mr. Raymond Greene shook his head.
"When I am on business," he explained, "I don't carry my sticks about with me, and I tell
you this last fortnight has been a giddy whirl for me. I was in Berlin Wednesday night,
and I did business in Vienna last Monday. Ah! here comes Miss Dalstan."
He rose ceremoniously to his feet. A young lady who was still wearing her travelling
clothes smiled at him delightfully and sank into the chair by his side. During the little stir
caused by her arrival, no one paid any attention to the man who had slipped into the other
vacant place opposite. Mr. Greene, however, when he had finished making known his
companion's wants to the steward, welcomed Philip Romilly genially.
"Now we're a full table," he declared. "That's what I like. I only hope we'll keep it up all
the voyage. Mind, there'll be a forfeit for the first one that misses a meal. Mr. Romilly,
isn't it?" he went on, glancing at his left-hand neighbour's card once more. "My name's
Raymond Greene. I am an old traveller and there's nothing I enjoy more, outside my
business, than these little ocean trips, especially when they come after a pretty strenuous
time on shore. Crossed many times, sir?"
"Never before," Philip answered.
"First trip, eh?" Mr. Greene remarked, mildly interested. "Well, well, you've some
surprises in store for you, then. Let me make you acquainted with your opposite
neighbour, Miss Elizabeth Dalstan. I dare say, even if you haven't been in the States, you
know some of our principal actresses by name."
Philip raised his head and caught a glimpse of a rather pale face, a mass of deep brown
hair, a pleasant smile from a very shapely mouth, and the rather intense regard of a pair
of wonderfully soft eyes, whose colour at that moment he was not able to determine.

"I have had the pleasure of seeing Miss Dalstan on the stage," he observed.
"Capital!" Mr. Raymond Greene exclaimed. "We haven't met before, have we, Mr.
Romilly? Something kind of familiar in your face. You are not by way of being in the
Profession, are you?"
Romilly shook his head.
"I am a manufacturer," he acknowledged.
"That so?" his neighbour remarked, a trifle surprised. "Queer! I had a fancy that we'd met,
and quite lately, too. I am in the cinema business. You may have heard of me--Raymond
Greene?"
"I have seen some of your films," Philip told him. "Very excellent productions, if you
will allow me to say so."
"That's pleasant hearing at any time," Mr. Greene admitted, with a gratified smile. "Well,
I can see that we are going to be quite a friendly party. That's Mr. Busby on your right,
Mr. Romilly--some golfer, I can tell you!--and his friend Mr. Caroll alongside. The lady
next you--"
"My name is Miss Pinsent," the elderly lady indicated declared pleasantly, replying to Mr.
Greene's interrogative glance. "It is my first trip to America, too. I am going out to see a
nephew who has settled in Chicago."
"Capital!" Mr. Raymond Greene repeated. "Now we are all more or less a family party.
What did you say your line of business was, Mr. Romilly?"
"I don't remember mentioning it," Philip observed, "but I am a manufacturer of boots and
shoes."
Elizabeth Dalstan looked across at him a little curiously. One might have surmised that
she was in some way disappointed.
"Coming over to learn a