to ten— I will even dance with Mr. Thorold. What a pity I can't dance before father, but he's certain to be in the gambling-rooms then, winning money; he always is at that hour! At a quarter to ten I will slip out, and you'll be here at this back door with a carriage. We drive to the quay and just catch the 11.5 steamer, and I meet your cousin Mary. On Friday morning we are married; and then, then we shall be in a position to talk to father. He'll pretend to be furious, but he can't say much, because he eloped himself. Didn't you know?"
"I didn't." said Harry, with a certain dryness.
"Oh, yes! It's in the family! But you needn't look so starched, my English lord." He took her hand. " You're sure your uncle won't disinherit you, or anything horrid of that kind?"
"He can't," said Harry.
"What a perfectly lovely country England is! " Geraldine exclaimed. " Fancy the poor old thing not being able to disinherit you! Why, it's just too delicious for words!"
And for some reason or other he kissed her violently.
Then an official entered the bureau and asked them if they wanted to go to Blankenburghe; because, if so, the tram was awaiting their distinguished pleasure. They looked at each other foolishly and sidled out, and the bureau ceased to be Cupid's bower.
III.
By Simeon's request, Cecil dined with the Rainshores that night at the Continental. After dinner they all sat out on the balcony and sustained themselves with coffee while watching the gay traffic of the Digue, the brilliant illumination of the Kursaal, and the distant lights on the invisible but murmuring sea. Geraldine was in one of her moods of philosophic pessimism, and would persist in dwelling on the uncertainty of riches and the vicissitudes of millionaires. She found a text in the famous Bowring case, of which the newspaper contained many interesting details.
"I wonder if he'll be caught?" she remarked.
"I wonder," said Cecil.
"What do you think, father?"
"I think you had better go to bed," Simeon replied.
The chit rose and kissed him duteously.
"Good night," she said. "Aren't you glad the sea keeps so calm?"
"Why?"
"Can you ask? Mr. Vaux-Lowry crosses tonight, and he's a dreadfully bad sailor. Come along, mother. Mr. Thorold, when mother and I return from Brussels, we shall expect to be taken for a cruise in the Claribel."
Simeon sighed with relief upon the departure of his family and began a fresh cigar. On the whole, his day had been rather too domestic. He was quite pleased when Cecil, having apparently by accident broached the subject of the Dry Goods Trust, proceeded to exhibit a minute curiosity concerning the past, the present, and the future of the greatest of all the Rainshore enterprises.
"Are you thinking of coming in?" Simeon demanded at length, pricking up his ears.
"No," said Cecil, "I'm thinking of going out. The fact is, I haven't mentioned it before, but I'm ready to sell a very large block of shares."
"The deuce you are!" Simeon exclaimed. "And what do you call a very large block?"
"Well," said Cecil, " it would cost me nearly half a million to take them up now."
"Dollars?"
"Pounds sterling. Twenty-five thousand shares, at 95⅜."
Rainshore whistled two bars of "Follow me!" from "The Belle of New York."
"Is this how you amuse yourself at Ostend?" he inquired.
Cecil smiled: "This is quite an exceptional transaction. And not too profitable, either."
"But you can't dump that lot on the market," Simeon protested.
"Yes, I can," said Cecil. " I must, and I will. There are reasons. You yourself wouldn't care to handle it, I suppose?"
The president of the Trust pondered.
"I'd handle it at 93⅜," he answered quietly.
"Oh, come! That's dropping two points!" said Cecil, shocked. "A minute ago you were prophesying a further rise."
Rainshore's face gleamed out momentarily in the darkness as he puffed at his cigar.
"If you must unload," he remarked, as if addressing the red end of the cigar, "I'm your man at 93⅜."
Cecil argued: but Simeon Rainshore never argued— it was not his method. In a quarter of an hour the younger man had contracted to sell twenty-five thousand shares of a hundred dollars each in the United States Dry Goods Trust at two points below the current market quotation, and six and five-eighths points below par.
The hoot of an outgoing steamer sounded across the city.
"I must go," said Cecil.
"You're in a mighty hurry," Simeon complained.
IV.
Five minutes later Cecil was in his own rooms at the Hotel de la Plage. Soon there was a discreet knock at the door.
"Come in, Lecky," he said.
It was his servant who entered, the small, thin man with very mobile eyes and of no particular age, who, in various capacities and incarnations— now as liftman, now as financial agent, now as no matter what— assisted Cecil in his diversions.
"Mr. Vaux-Lowry really did go by the boat, sir."
"Good. And you have given directions about the yacht?"
"The affair is in order."
"And you've procured one of Mr. Rainshore's Homburg hats?"
"It is in your dressing-room. There was no mark of identification on it. So, in order to smooth the difficulties of the police when they find it on the beach, I have taken the liberty of writing Mr. Rainshore's name on the lining."
"A kindly thought," said Cecil. "You'll catch the special G.S.N, steamer direct for London at 1 a.m. That will get you into town before two o'clock to-morrow afternoon. Things have turned out as I expected, and I've nothing else to say to you; but, before leaving me, perhaps you had better repeat your instructions."
"With pleasure, sir," said Lecky. "Tuesday afternoon.— I call at Cloak Lane and intimate that we want to sell Dry Goods shares. I ineffectually try to conceal a secret cause for alarm, and I gradually disclose the fact that we are very anxious indeed to sell really a lot of Dry Goods shares, in a hurry. I permit myself to be pumped, and the information is wormed out of me that Mr. Simeon Rainshore has disappeared, has possibly committed suicide; but that, at present, no one is aware of this except ourselves. I express doubts as to the soundness of the Trust, and I remark on the unfortunateness of this disappearance so soon after the lamentable panic connected with the lately vanished Bruce Bowring and his companies. I send our friends on 'Change with orders to see what they can do and to report. I then go to Birchin Lane and repeat the performance there without variation. Then I call at the City office of the Evening Messenger and talk privily in a despondent vein with the financial editor concerning the Trust, but I breathe not a word as to Mr. Rainshore's disappearance. Wednesday morning— The rot in Dry Goods has set in sharply, but I am now, very foolishly, disposed to haggle about the selling price. Our friends urge me to accept what I can get, and I leave them, saying that I must telegraph to you. Wednesday afternoon— I see a reporter of the Morning Journal and let out that Simeon Rainshore has disappeared. The Journal will wire to Ostend for confirmation, which confirmation it will receive. Thursday morning— The bottom is knocked out of the price of Dry Goods shares. Then I am to call on our other friends in Throgmorton Street and tell them to buy, buy, buy, in London, New York, Paris, everywhere."
"Go in peace," said Cecil. "If we are lucky, the price will drop to seventy."
V.