Uneasy Money | Page 5

you personally to use your influence--you told
me so.'
'But, my dear girl--I mean my darling--Breitstein! He's the limit! He's
the worst bounder in London.'
'He's also one of the richest men in London. He would have done
anything for you. And you let him go! You insulted him!'

'Insulted him?'
'Didn't you send him an admission ticket to the Zoo?'
'Oh, well, yes, I did do that. He thanked me and went the following
Sunday. Amazing how these rich Johnnies love getting something for
nothing. There was that old American I met down at Marvis Bay last
year--'
'You threw away a wonderful chance of making all sorts of money.
Why, a single tip from Mr Breitstein would have made your fortune.'
'But, Claire, you know, there are some things--what I mean is, if they
like me at Brown's, it's awfully decent of them and all that, but I
couldn't take advantage of it to plant a fellow like Breitstein on them. It
wouldn't be playing the game.'
'Oh, nonsense!'
Lord Dawlish looked unhappy, but said nothing. This matter of Mr
Breitstein had been touched upon by Claire in previous conversations,
and it was a subject for which he had little liking. Experience had
taught him that none of the arguments which seemed so conclusive to
him--to wit, that the financier had on two occasions only just escaped
imprisonment for fraud, and, what was worse, made a noise when he
drank soup, like water running out of a bathtub--had the least effect
upon her. The only thing to do when Mr Breitstein came up in the
course of chitchat over the festive board was to stay quiet until he blew
over.
'That old American you met at Marvis Bay,' said Claire, her memory
flitting back to the remark which she had interrupted; 'well, there's
another case. You could easily have got him to do something for you.'
'Claire, really!' said his goaded lordship, protestingly. 'How on earth? I
only met the man on the links.'
'But you were very nice to him. You told me yourself that you spent
hours helping him to get rid of his slice, whatever that is.'
'We happened to be the only two down there at the time, so I was as
civil as I could manage. If you're marooned at a Cornish seaside resort
out of the season with a man, you can't spend your time dodging him.
And this man had a slice that fascinated me. I felt at the time that it was
my mission in life to cure him, so I had a dash at it. But I don't see how
on the strength of that I could expert the old boy to adopt me. He
probably forgot my existence after I had left.'

'You said you met him in London a month or two afterwards, and he
hadn't forgotten you.'
'Well, yes, that's true. He was walking up the Haymarket and I was
walking down. I caught his eye, and he nodded and passed on. I don't
see how I could construe that into an invitation to go and sit on his lap
and help myself out of his pockets.'
'You couldn't expect him to go out of his way to help you; but probably
if you had gone to him he would have done something.'
'You haven't the pleasure of Mr Ira Nutcombe's acquaintance, Claire, or
you wouldn't talk like that. He wasn't the sort of man you could get
things out of. He didn't even tip the caddie. Besides, can't you see what
I mean? I couldn't trade on a chance acquaintance of the golf links to--'
'That is just what I complain of in you. You're too diffident.'
'It isn't diffidence exactly. Talking of old Nutcombe, I was speaking to
Gates again the other night. He was telling me about America. There's a
lot of money to be made over there, you know, and the committee owes
me a holiday. They would give me a few weeks off any time I liked.
'What do you say? Shall I pop over and have a look round? I might
happen to drop into something. Gates was telling me about fellows he
knew who had dropped into things in New York.'
'What's the good of putting yourself to all the trouble and expense of
going to America? You can easily make all you want in London if you
will only try. It isn't as if you had no chances. You have more chances
than almost any man in town. With your title you could get all the
directorships in the City that you wanted.'
'Well, the fact is, this business of taking directorships has never quite
appealed to me. I don't know anything about the game, and I should
probably run