The Wicked Marquis Read online

  CHAPTER X

  Mr. Wadham, Junior, a morning or so later, rang the bell at Number 94Grosvenor Square and aired himself for a moment upon the broaddoorstep, filled with a comfortable sense that this time, at least, inhis prospective interview, he was destined to disturb the disconcertingequanimity of his distinguished client. He was duly admitted andushered into the presence of the Marquis, who laid down the newspaperwhich he was reading, nodded affably to his visitor and pointed to achair.

  "Your request for an interview, Mr. Wadham," the former said,"anticipated my own desire to see you. Pray be seated. I am entirelyat your service."

  Mr. Wadham paused for a moment and decided to cross his legs. He wasalready struggling against that enervating sense of insignificancewhich his client's presence inevitably imposed upon him.

  "We heard yesterday morning from Mr. Merridrew," he commenced. "Hemade us a remittance which was four hundred pounds short of what weexpected. His explanation was that your lordship had received that sumfrom him."

  "Quite right, Mr. Wadham," the Marquis assented affably. "Quite right.I was in the neighbourhood, and, finding Mr. Merridrew with aconsiderable sum of money in hand, I took from him precisely the amountyou have stated."

  "Your lordship has perhaps overlooked the fact," Mr. Wadham continued,"that we are that amount short of the interest on the Fakenhammortgage--Number Seven mortgage, we usually call it."

  "Dear me!" the Marquis observed. "Surely such a trifling sum does notdisturb your calculations? You do not run my affairs on so narrow amargin as this, I trust, Mr. Wadham?"

  "It isn't a question of a narrow margin, your lordship," Mr. Wadhamreplied. "There is, as a rule, no margin at all. We usually have tomake the amount up by overdrawing, or by advancing it ourselves. Thistime the firm wish me to point out that we are unable to do either."

  "Dear me! Dear me!" the Marquis ejaculated, in a tone of some concern."I had no idea, Mr. Wadham, if you will forgive my saying so, that yourfirm was in so impecunious a position."

  "Impecunious?" the lawyer murmured, with his eyes fixed upon hisclient. "I scarcely follow your lordship."

  "Did I not understand you to say," the Marquis continued, "that thistrifle of four hundred pounds has upset your arrangements to such anextent that you are unable to make your customary payments on mybehalf?"

  "Will your lordship forgive my pointing out," Mr. Wadham explained,"that these payments are on your account, and that it is no part of thebusiness of solicitors to finance their clients, without a specialarrangement? We have our own more lucrative investments continuallyopen to us, and we are at the present moment several thousand poundsout of pocket on account of recent law expenses."

  "The whole thing," the Marquis pronounced, "seems to me very trifling.State in precise terms, if you please, Mr. Wadham, the object of yourvisit."

  "To ask for your lordship's instructions as to the payment of twelvehundred pounds interest, due to-morrow," Mr. Wadham replied. "We haveeight hundred pounds in hand from Mr. Merridrew. So far from havingany other funds of your lordship's at our disposal, we are, as I havepointed out, your creditor for a somewhat considerable amount."

  The Marquis was leaning back in his chair, the tips of his long,elegant fingers pressed gently together.

  "It appears to me, Mr. Wadham," he said quietly, "that your visit is,in a sense, an admonitory one. Your firm resents--am I not right?--thefact that I have found it convenient to help myself to a portion of therevenue accruing from my estate."

  "We should not presume for a moment to take up such an attitude," thelawyer protested. "On the other hand, the four hundred pounds inquestion requires replacement by to-morrow."

  "And you find the raising of that sum inconvenient, eh, Mr. Wadham?"

  The young man was distinctly ill at ease. His instructions were to befirm and dignified but by no means to offend; to deliver a formalprotest against this tampering with funds already dedicate, but to door say nothing which would give the Marquis any excuse for reprisalsagainst the firm. Mr. Wadham began to wonder whether perhaps he was aperson of small tact, or whether these instructions were more thanusually difficult to carry out.

  "There is no sacrifice, your lordship," he said slowly, "which my firmwould hesitate to make in your interests and the interests of theMandeleys estate. At the same time, the unexpected necessity forfinding these sums of money is, I must confess, at times a strain uponus."

  The Marquis nodded sympathetically. He rose to his feet, crossed theroom towards his desk, which he unlocked with a key attached to a goldchain, and returned with a bundle of scrip in his hand.

  "I have here, Mr. Wadham," he announced, "scrip in a very famous oilcompany, the face value of the shares being, I believe, a trifle overforty thousand pounds. I, in fact, paid that price for them at thebeginning of the week."

  The young lawyer uncrossed his legs and swallowed hard. He wasprepared for many shocks, but this one seemed outside the region of allhuman probability.

  "Did I understand your lordship to say that you had paid forty thousandpounds for them?" he gasped.

  The Marquis assented with an equable little nod.

  "I was somewhat favoured in the matter," he admitted, "as the value ofthe shares has, I believe, already considerably increased. The amountI actually paid for them was, in round figures, forty thousand and onehundred pounds--transfer duty, or something of that sort. I havelittle head for figures, as you know, Mr. Wadham. You had better takethese--not for sale, mind, but for deposit at one of my banks. Youwill probably find that, under the circumstances, they will permit youto overdraw an additional five hundred pounds on my account, withoutembarrassing your own finances."

  Mr. Wadham, Junior, took the bundle of scrip into his hand, and glancedhastily through it.

  "The Pluto Oil Company of Arizona," he murmured reflectively.

  "The name of the company is doubtless unknown to you," the Marquisobserved indulgently; "they are, in fact, only just commencingoperations--but it is the opinion of my friend and financial adviser,Mr. David Thain, that the forty thousand pounds' worth of shares youhave in your hand will be worth at least two hundred thousand beforethe end of the year."

  "Mr. David Thain, the multi-millionaire?" Mr. Wadham faltered.

  "The same!"

  The lawyer gripped the bundle hard in one hand, closed his eyes for amoment, opened them again and struck out boldly.

  "As your lordship's adviser," he said, "may I enquire as to the natureof the payment which you have made? Forty thousand pounds is not a sumwhich either of the banks with whom your lordship has credit--"

  The Marquis waved his hand.

  "My dear young friend," he explained, "it was not necessary for me toresort to banks. Mr. Thain suggested voluntarily that I should givehim my note of hand for the amount. He quite understood that a manwhose chief interest in the country is land does not keep such a sum asforty thousand pounds lying at his banker's."

  Mr. Wadham groped for his hat.

  "The shares shall be deposited, and the interest, of course, paid," hemurmured. "I am sorry to have troubled your lordship in the matter."

  "Not at all, not at all," the Marquis replied genially. "Very pleasedto see you at any time, Mr. Wadham, on any subject connected with theestates. Ah!" he added, glancing at a card which a footman at thatmoment had brought in, "here is my friend, Mr. David Thain. You mustmeet him, Mr. Wadham. Such men are rare in this country. They formmost interesting adjuncts to our modern civilisation. Show Mr. Thainin, Thomas."

  David Thain duly arrived. He shook hands with the Marquis and was byhim presented to Mr. Wadham.

  "Mr. Wadham is my legal advisor--or rather a junior representative ofthe firm who conduct my affairs," the Marquis explained. "I have justhanded him over my shares in the Pluto Oil Company, for safe keeping."

  "Very glad to know you, Mr. Thain," the young lawyer observed,reverently shaking hands. "One reads a great deal of your financialexploits i
n the newspapers just now."

  "I really can't see," David replied, "that your press men are muchbetter over here than in the States. In any case, Mr. Wadham, youmustn't believe all you read."

  "You will give my regards to your father and the other members of yourfirm," the Marquis concluded, with the faintest possible indication ofhis head towards the door. "I shall probably have some instructions ofan interesting nature to give you before long, with regard to thecancellation of, at any rate, the home estate mortgages. Ah, here isThomas! Very much obliged for your attention, Mr. Wadham."

  The lawyer made his adieux in somewhat confused fashion, and left theroom with an ignominious sense of dismissal. The Marquis glanced atthe clock.

  "I am a creature of habit, Mr. Thain," he said. "At twelve o'clock Iwalk for an hour in the Park. Will you give me the honour of yourcompany?"

  "Anywhere you say," David assented. "There was just a little matter Iwanted to mention--nothing important."

  "Precisely," the Marquis murmured, ringing the bell. "You will returnto lunch, of course? I shall take no denial. My daughter would bedistressed to miss you. Gossett," he added, as they moved out into thehall, "my coat and hat, and tell Lady Letitia that Mr. Thain will lunchwith us. Have you any idea, Gossett," he added, as he accepted hiscane and gloves, "how to make cocktails?"

  "I have a book of recipes, your lordship," was the somewhat doubtfulreply.

  "See that cocktails are served before luncheon," the Marquisinstructed. "You see, we are not altogether ignorant of the habits ofyour countrymen, Mr. Thain, even if in some cases we may not ourselveshave adopted them. A cocktail is, I gather, some form of alcoholicnourishment?"

  Thain indulged in what was, for him, a rare luxury--a hearty laugh. Hethrew his head back, showing all his white, firm teeth, and the littlelines at the sides of his eyes wrinkled up with enjoyment. Suddenly avoice on the stairs interposed.

  "I must know the joke," Letitia declared. "How do you do, Mr. Thain?A laugh like yours makes one feel positively delirious with the desireto share it. Father, do tell me what it was?"

  "To tell you the truth, my dear," the Marquis replied, quite honestly,"I am a little ignorant as to the humorous application of a remark Ihave just made."

  "It was your father's definition of an American institution, LadyLetitia," David explained, "and I am afraid that its humour dependedsolely upon a certain environment which I was able to conjure up in mymind--a barroom at the Waldorf, say."

  "Another disappointment," Letitia sighed.

  "Mr. Thain is lunching with us, dear," her father announced.

  "So glad," Letitia remarked, nodding to Thain. "We shall meet again,then."

  She passed out of the front door, and David, who was very observant,noticing several things, was silent for the first few moments after herdeparture. She appeared, as she could scarcely fail to appear in hiseyes, charming even to the point of bewilderment. Yet, although thewind was cold, she had only a small and very inadequate fur collararound her neck. Her tailormade suit showed signs of constantbrushings. There was a little--a very modest little patch upon hershoes, and a very distinct darn upon her gloves. David frowned inpuzzled fashion as he turned into the Park. Some of his boyishantipathies, so carefully nursed by his uncle and fostered by theatmosphere in which they lived during his early days in America,flashed into his memory, only to be instantly discarded. He rememberedthe drawn blinds, the weedy walks of Mandeleys; the hasty glimpse whichhe had had of silent, empty rooms and uncarpeted ways in the higherstoreys of the mansion in Grosvenor Square.

  "I am not a person," the Marquis observed, as they proceeded upon theirpromenade, "who needs a great deal of exercise, but I am almost a slaveto habit, and for many years, when in town, it has been my custom towalk here for an hour, to exchange greetings, perhaps, with a fewacquaintances, to call at my club for ten minutes and take a glass ofdry sherry before luncheon. In the afternoons," he went on, "Ioccasionally play a round of golf at Ranelagh. Are you an expert atthe game, Mr. Thain?"

  "I have made blasphemous efforts," David confessed, "but I certainlycannot call myself an expert. Perhaps what is known as the Americanspirit has rather interfered with my efforts. You see, we want to getthings done too quickly. Golf is a game eminently suited to theBritish temperament."

  "You are doubtless right," the Marquis murmured. "That loiteringbackward swing, eh?--the lazy indisposition to raise one's head? Ifollow you, Mr. Thain. Your call this morning, by-the-by," he went on."You have some news, perhaps, of these Pluto Oils?"

  David shook his head.

  "I came to see you," he announced, "upon a different matter."