The Moneychangers | Page 8

and I shall have to look further
into the condition of the road. I should advise her to accept a fair
offer--say seventy-five per cent of the par value of the stock."
"We can talk about that later," said Hegan, "if I can find the man for
you." And Montague shook hands with him and left.
He stopped in on his way home in the evening to tell Lucy about the

result of his interview. "We shall hear from him soon," he said. "I don't
imagine that Hegan is a man who takes long to make up his mind."
"My prayers will be with him," said Lucy, with a laugh. Then she
added, "I suppose I shall see you Friday night at Mr. Harvey's."
"I shan't come out until Saturday afternoon," said he. "I am very busy
these days, working on a case. But I try to find time to get down to
Siegfried Harvey's; I seem to get along with him."
"They tell me he goes in for horses," said Lucy.
"He has a splendid stable," he answered.
"It was good of Ollie to bring him round," said she. "I have certainly
jumped into the midst of things. What do you think I'm going to do
to-morrow?"
"I have no idea," he said.
"I have been invited to see Mr. Waterman's art gallery."
"Dan Waterman's!" he exclaimed. "How did that happen?"
"Mrs. Alden's brother asked me. He knows him, and got me the
invitation. Wouldn't you like to go?"
"I shall be busy in court all day to-morrow," said Montague. "But I'd
like to see the collection. I understand it's a wonderful affair,--the old
man has spent all his spare time at it. You hear fabulous estimates of
what it's cost him--four or five millions at the least."
"But why in the world does he hide it in a studio way up the Hudson?"
cried Lucy.
The other shrugged his shoulders. "Just a whim," he said. "He didn't
collect it for other people's pleasure."
"Well, so long as he lets me see it, I can't complain," said Lucy. "There
are so many things to see in this city, I am sure I shall be busy for a
year."
"You will get tired before you have seen half of them," he answered.
"Everybody does."
"Do you know Mr. Waterman?" she asked.
"I have never met him," he said. "I have seen him a couple of times."
And Montague went on to tell her of the occasion in the Millonaires'
Club, when he had seen the Croesus of Wall Street surrounded by an
attending throng of "little millionaires."
"I hope I shan't meet him," said Lucy. "I know I should be frightened to
death."

"They say he can be charming when he wants to," replied Montague.
"The ladies are fond of him."
On Saturday afternoon, when Montague went down to Harvey's Long
Island home, his brother met him at the ferry.
"Allan," he began, immediately, "did you know that Lucy had come
down here with Stanley Ryder?"
"Heavens, no!" exclaimed Montague. "Is Ryder down here?"
"He got Harvey to invite him," Oliver replied. "And I know it was for
no reason in the world but to be with Lucy. He took her out in his
automobile."
Montague was dumfounded.
"She never hinted it to me," he said.
"By God!" exclaimed Oliver, "I wonder if that fellow is going after
Lucy!"
Montague stood for some time, lost in sombre thought. "I don't think it
will do him much good," he said. "Lucy knows too much."
"Lucy has never met a man like Stanley Ryder!" declared the other.
"He has spent all his life hunting women, and she is no match for him
at all."
"What do you know about him?" asked Montague.
"What don't I know about him!" exclaimed the other. "He was in love
with Betty Wyman once."
"Oh, my Lord!" exclaimed Montague.
"Yes," said Oliver, "and she told me all about it. He has as many tricks
as a conjurer. He has read a lot of New Thought stuff, and he talks
about his yearning soul, and every woman he meets is his affinity. And
then again, he is a free thinker, and he discourses about liberty and the
rights of women. He takes all the moralities and shuffles them up, until
you'd think the noblest role a woman could play is that of a married
man's mistress."
Montague could not forbear to smile. "I have known you to shuffle the
moralities now and then yourself, Ollie," he said.
"Yes, that's all right," replied the other. "But this is Lucy. And
somebody's got to talk to her about Stanley Ryder."
"I will do it," Montague answered.
He found Lucy in a cosy corner of the library when he came down to
dinner.