The Wicked Marquis Read online

  CHAPTER XIII

  There was just one drop of alloy in the perfect contentment with whichthe Marquis contemplated his new prospects, and that was contained in atelephone message from Mr. Wadham, Junior, which he received upon theafternoon of David's call upon the Duchess.

  "I must apologise for troubling your lordship," Mr. Wadham began. "Iknow your objection to the telephone, but in this instance it was quiteimpossible to send a message."

  "I accept your apology and am listening," the Marquis declaredgraciously. "Be so good as to speak quite slowly, and don't mumble."

  Mr. Wadham, Junior, cleared his throat before continuing. He was alittle proud of his voice, although its rise and fall was perhaps moresatisfactory from the point of view of a Chancery Court than from onewho expected to gather the sense of every syllable.

  "I am ringing up your lordship," he continued, "concerning the largebatch of shares in the Pluto Oil Company of Arizona, which youentrusted to us for safe keeping, and for deposit with the bank againstthe advance required last Monday."

  "I can hear you perfectly," the Marquis acknowledged suavely. "Praycontinue."

  "Your lordship's bankers sent for me this morning," Mr. Wadham went on,"in connection with these shares. They thought it their duty to pointout, either through us or by communication with you direct, thataccording to the advice of a most reliable broker, their commercialvalue is practically nil."

  "Is what?" the Marquis demanded.

  "Nil--nix--not worth a cent," Mr. Wadham, Junior, proclaimedemphatically.

  The Marquis, in that slang phraseology which he would have been thefirst to decry, never turned a hair. He had not the least intention,moreover, of permitting his interlocutor at the other end of thetelephone even a momentary sensation of triumph.

  "You can present my compliments to the manager," he said, "and tell himthat the value of the shares in question does not concern either him orhis brokers. In any case, they could not possibly have any informationconcerning the company, as it is only just registered and has not yetcommenced operations. You understand me, Mr. Wadham?"

  "Perfectly, your lordship," was the smooth reply. "The fact remains,however, that the brokers do know something about the company and thepersons interested in it, and that knowledge, I regret to say, is mostunfavourable. We felt it our duty, therefore, to pass on these facts."

  "I am exceedingly obliged to you for your anxieties on my behalf," theMarquis declared. "My legal interests are, I am quite sure, safe inyour hands. My financial affairs--my outside financial affairs, thatis to say--I prefer to keep under my own control. I might remind youthat these shares are supported, and came into my hands, in fact,through the agency of Mr. David Thain, the great financier."

  There was a moment's pause.

  "I had not forgotten the fact," Mr. Wadham admitted diffidently, "andit certainly seems improbable that Mr. Thain would introduce a riskyinvestment to your lordship within a few weeks of his arrival in thiscountry. At the same time, we feel compelled, of course, to bring toyour notice the broker's report."

  "Quite so," the Marquis acquiesced. "Kindly let the people concernedknow that I am acting in this matter upon special information.Good-day, Mr. Wadham. My compliments to your father."

  So the conversation terminated, but the Marquis for the remainder ofthat day felt as though just the shadow of a cloud rested upon hishappiness. Twice he stared at the address of David's rooms, whichoccupied a prominent place upon his study table, but on both occasionshe resisted the impulse to seek him out and obtain the reassurance heneeded. He buried himself instead in a Review.

  Letitia came in to see him on the way back from her aunt's tea party.The Marquis carefully made a note of his place and laid down hisperiodical.

  "You found your aunt well, I trust, dear?"

  "Oh, she was all right," Letitia replied. "She had an irritating lotof callers there, though."

  Her father nodded sympathetically.

  "The extraordinary habit which people in our rank of life seem to havedeveloped lately for making friends outside their own sphere is makingSociety very difficult," he declared. "Members of our own family are,I am afraid, amongst the transgressors. Whom did you meet thisafternoon?"

  Letitia mentioned a few names listlessly.

  "And Mr. Thain," she concluded.

  Her father betrayed his interest.

  "Mr. Thain was there, eh? I understood that he was much averse topaying calls."

  "He looked as though he had been roped in," Letitia observed, "and auntwas all over herself, apologising to him for having other people there.She wanted to consult him, it seems, about something or other, and sheturned him over to me until she was ready."

  "And you," the Marquis enquired, with questioning sympathy, "wereperhaps bored?"

  "Not bored, exactly--rather irritated! I think I am like you, in somerespects, father," Letitia went on, smoothing out her gloves. "Iprefer to find my intimates within the circle of our own relatives andconnections. A person like Mr. Thain in some way disturbs me."

  "That," the Marquis regretted, "is unfortunate, as he is likely to beour neighbour at Mandeleys."

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  "Oh, it is of no consequence," she replied. "I shall never feel theslightest compunction in anything I might do or say to him. If he paysmore for Broomleys than it is worth, he has the advantage of ourcountenance, which I imagine, to a person in his position, makes thebargain equal. Mr. Thain does not seem to me to be one of those menwho would part with anything unless he got some return."

  "Money, nowadays," the Marquis reflected, pressing the tips of hisfingers together, "is a marvellously revitalising influence. Peoplewhose social position is almost, if not quite equal to our own, haveeven taken it into the family through marriage."

  Letitia's very charming mouth twitched. Her lips parted, and shelaughed softly. Nothing amused her more than this extraordinaryblindness of her father to actual facts--such, for instance, as theLees' woollen mills!

  "I do hope," she remarked, "that you are not thinking of offering meup, dad, on the altar of the God of Dollars?"

  "My dear child," the Marquis protested, "I can truthfully and proudlysay that I am acquainted with no young woman of your position inconnection with whom such a suggestion would be more sacrilegious. Ihave sometimes hoped," he went on, "that matters were already on theeve of settlement in another direction."

  "I don't know, I'm sure," Letitia answered thoughtfully. "I sometimesthink that I have a great many more feelings, dad, than the soleremaining daughter of the Right Honourable Reginald Thursford, Marquisof Mandeleys, ought to possess. The fact is, there are times when Ican't stand Charlie anywhere near me, and as to discussing any subjectof reasonable interest, well, he can only see anything from his ownpoint of view, and that is always wrong."

  "You and he, then," the Marquis observed, "appear to share--or ratherto possess every essential for domestic happiness. The constantpropinquity in which married people of the middle and lower classes areforced to live is no doubt responsible, in many cases, for the earlytermination of their domestic happiness."

  "I always thought the middle classes were horribly virtuous," Letitiayawned. "However!--Thursday night, dad. You are dining out, aren'tyou?"

  "Thursday night," the Marquis repeated, telling for the hundredth time,with bland ease, the falsehood which had almost ceased to have even theintention to deceive. "Yes, I dine at my club to-night, dear."

  She bent over and kissed his forehead.

  "Remember, my dear," he enjoined, "that I do not wish you to developany feelings of positive dislike towards Mr. Thain. Such people havetheir uses in the world. We must not forget that."

  Letitia laughed at him understandingly, but she closed the door insilence.