American—or English?”
“American.”
“What business you in?”
“None.”
“Been here long?” continued Bushmill stubbornly.
The young man hesitated.
“I was born here,” he said.
Bushmill blinked and his eyes roved involuntarily around the bar.
“Born here!” he repeated.
Corcoran smiled.
“Up on the fifth floor.”
The waiter set the two drinks and a dish of Saratoga chips on the table. Immediately Bushmill became aware of an interesting phenomenon—Corcoran’s hand commenced to flash up and down between the dish and his mouth, each journey transporting a thick layer of potatoes to the eager aperture, until the dish was empty.
“Sorry,” said Corcoran, looking rather regretfully at the dish. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his fingers. “I didn’t think what I was doing. I’m sure you can get some more.”
A series of details now began to impress themselves on Bushmill—that there were hollows in this young man’s cheeks that were not intended by the bone structure, hollows of undernourishment or ill health; that the fine flannel of his unmistakably Bond Street suit was shiny from many pressings—the elbows were fairly gleaming—and that his whole frame had suddenly collapsed a little as if the digestion of the potatoes and milk shake had begun immediately instead of waiting for the correct half hour.
“Born here, eh?” he said thoughtfully. “Lived a lot abroad, I guess.”
“Yes.”
“How long since you’ve had a square meal?”
The young man started.
“Why, I had lunch,” he said. “About one o’clock I had lunch.”
“One o’clock last Friday,” commented Bushmill skeptically.
There was a long pause.
“Yes,” admitted Corcoran, “about one o’clock last Friday.”
“Are you broke? Or are you waiting for money from home?”
“This is home.” Corcoran looked around abstractedly. “I’ve spent most of my life in the Ritz hotels of one city or another. I don’t think they’d believe me upstairs if I told them I was broke. But I’ve got just enough left to pay my bill when I move out tomorrow.”
Bushmill frowned.
“You could have lived a week at a small hotel for what it costs you here by the day,” he remarked.
“I don’t know the names of any other hotels.”
Corcoran smiled apologetically. It was a singularly charming and somehow entirely confident smile, and Julius Bushmill was filled with a mixture of pity and awe. There was something of the snob in him, as there is in all self-made men, and he realized that this young man was telling the defiant truth.
“Any plans?”
“No.”
“Any abilities—or talents?”
Corcoran considered.
“I can speak most languages,” he said. “But talents—I’m afraid the only one I have is for spending money.”
“How do you know you’ve got that?”
“I can’t very well help knowing it.” Again he hesitated. “I’ve just finished running through a matter of half a million dollars.”
Bushmill’s exclamation died on its first syllable as a new voice, impatient, reproachful and cheerfully anxious, shattered the seclusion of the grill.
“Have you seen a man without a vest named Bushmill? A very old man about fifty? We’ve been waiting for him about two or three hours.”
“Hallie,” called Bushmill, with a groan of remorse, “here I am. I’d forgotten you were alive.”
“Don’t flatter yourself it’s you we missed,” said Hallie, coming up. “It’s only your money. Mama and I want food—and we must look it: two nice French gentlemen wanted to take us to dinner while we were waiting in the hall!”
“This is Mr. Corcoran,” said Bushmill. “My daughter.”
Hallie Bushmill was young and vivid and light, with boy’s hair and a brow that bulged just slightly, like a baby’s brow, and under it small perfect features that danced up and down when she smiled. She was constantly repressing their tendency toward irresponsible gaiety, as if she feared that, once encouraged, they would never come back to kindergarten under that childish brow anymore.
“Mr. Corcoran was born here in the Ritz,” announced her father. “I’m sorry I kept you and your mother waiting, but to tell the truth we’ve been fixing up a little surprise.” He looked at Corcoran and winked perceptibly. “As you know, I’ve got to go to England day after tomorrow and do some business in those ugly industrial towns. My plan was that you and your mother should make a month’s tour of Belgium and Holland and end up at Amsterdam, where Hallie’s—where Mr. Nosby will meet you—”
“Yes, I know all that,” said Hallie. “Go on. Let’s have the surprise.”
“I had planned to engage a courier,” continued Mr. Bushmill, “but fortunately I ran into my friend Corcoran this evening and he’s agreed to go instead.”
“I haven’t said a word—” interrupted Corcoran in amazement, but Bushmill continued with a decisive wave of his hand:
“Brought up in Europe, he knows it like a book; born in the Ritz, he understands hotels; taught by experience”—here he looked significantly at Corcoran—“taught by experience, he can prevent you and your mother from being extravagant and show you how to observe the happy mean.”
“Great!” Hallie looked at Corcoran with interest. “We’ll have a regular loop, Mr.—”
She broke off. During the last few minutes a strange expression had come into Corcoran’s face. It spread suddenly now into a sort of frightened pallor.
“Mr. Bushmill,” he said with an effort, “I’ve got to speak to you alone—at once. It’s very important. I—”
Hallie jumped to her feet.
“I’ll wait with Mother,” she said with a curious glance. “Hurry—both of you.”
As she left the bar, Bushmill turned to Corcoran anxiously.
“What is it?” he demanded. “What do you want to say?”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to faint,” said Corcoran.
And with remarkable promptitude he did.
II
In spite of the immediate liking that Bushmill had taken to young Corcoran, a certain corroboratory investigation was, of course, necessary. The Paris branch of the New York bank that had handled the last of the half-million told him what he needed to know. Corcoran was not given to drink, heavy gambling or vice; he simply spent money—that was all. Various people, including certain officers of the bank who had known his family, had tried to argue with him at one time or another, but he was apparently an incurable spendthrift. A childhood and youth in Europe with a wildly indulgent mother had somehow robbed him of all sense of value or proportion.
Satisfied, Bushmill asked no more—no one knew what had become of the money and, even if they had, a certain delicacy would have prevented him from inquiring more deeply into Corcoran’s short past. But he did take occasion to utter a few parting admonitions before the expedition boarded the train.
“I’m