The Lady and the Lord | Page 8

one of mine. I am myself a
heavy buyer of National Zinc, Common, and I believe it will eventually
reach par or somewhere near it.
"'I made the great mistake of supposing that you were an adventuress,
and that you were trying to work off some worthless securities on my
client. Believe me, such a thing is quite common, and in every case that
has come under my notice it has been done through the agency of a
woman. I suppose your idea is to take the shares off the market, and
hold for a rise?'
"I hadn't the least idea what he meant by taking them off the market,
but I know that poor old Amos lost all his money by speculating on
margin--whatever that means. So I told him that I had a horror of
margins. That seemed to tickle him to death.
"He rubbed his hands together, and his eyes sparkled, and he beamed at

me over the top of his spectacles for quite a minute before he said
anything else. Then he shifted in his chair, and turned right round
toward me, leaning forward with one elbow resting on his knee.
"'Now, listen to me, Mrs. Crothers,' he said. 'I'm going to make you a
little confidence. My client, Lord Tipperary, has been spending far too
much money. Too much for his own good. He is altogether too fond of
borrowing, and still fonder, I am sorry to say, of gambling.
"'I have been trying for over a year past to persuade him to pull up, and
pay some attention to improving his financial position. You appear to
have found the key to the situation, and my proposal to you is this.
"'Let me manage the account for you. We will let Lord Tipperary
imagine that he is gambling, whereas as a matter of fact I will purchase
the shares outright in his name, and
The All Story Magazine, June 1911 "The Lady and the Lord" 8
hold them for him until the right moment comes to sell them again.
With the funds belonging to him that I can get together I can purchase a
considerable block of shares, and their increase in value within say
about six months or a year should help materially toward straightening
out his finances.
"'Once I have his written permission to buy the shares, and his promise
not to sell them before they reach a certain figure, I can manage the rest.
One of his pleasant little peculiarities is that he never breaks his
promises.
"'As for yourself, how would it be if you were to receive ten per cent of
the net profits on the transaction? I am sure Lord Tipperary would
agree to that, and I think you are justly entitled to it for persuading my
client to do what I could not talk him into doing myself.
"'Of course, I am aware that under the present arrangement existing
between you, you would receive half the profits; but knowing Lord
Tipperary as I do, and with all due respect to yourself, I would doubt

very much there being any profits to divide. When too entirely
inexperienced people open an account on the Stock Exchange, there
can be only one result--a dead loss. Don't you think my arrangement
would be better?'
"Well, of course, I thought it was better, and when Lord Tipperary
returned from London I made him go round and settle it that way with
Mr. Lewisohn. The lawyer agreed to supply me with funds as long as
the agreement lasted, and though his idea and mine on what constituted
enough money to go on with were slightly divergent, I got enough out
of him from time to time to pay my hotel bills.
"And National Zinc, Common, went up, and up, and up. I'm not going
to tell you how much I made out of it!
"But that isn't all. Before the agreement came to an end, and while I
was still waiting in Southampton, Mr. Lewisohn discovered that as
Amos's widow I was entitled under somebody or other's will to a life
interest in a small part of the Carruthers estates. So Amos was right,
after all! The income isn't much, but it's regular and safe, and I needn't
go on the stage again.
"Lord Tipperary is the nicest boy in the world, but I couldn't have him
falling so violently in love with me that people began to talk about it;
so when I had got all the money that was coming to me, I said good-by
to him and Mr. Lewisohn, and absconded to Paris. I bought all the
clothes I wanted in Paris, at least all the clothes I absolutely couldn't do
without, packed up my belongings, and then came straight back to New