other people in Kings Port there were
to whom the bride might gayly recite the tale of my roses, were none
of them likely to encounter Miss Rieppe; their paths and hers would not
meet until they met in church at the wedding of Hortense and John. No,
she could not have found out the truth; for never in the world would
she, at this eleventh hour, risk a conversation with John upon a subject
so full of well-packed explosives; and so she must be simply keeping
on both him and Eliza an eye as watchful as lay in her power. As for
Charley, what bait, what persuasion, what duress she had been able to
find that took him at an hour so critical from her side to New York, I
could not in the least conjecture. Had she said to the little banker,
Go, because I must think it over alone? It did not seem strong enough.
Or had she said, Go, and on your return you shall have my answer? Not
adequate either, I thought. Or had it been, If you don't go, it shall
be "no," to-day and forever? This last was better; but there was no
telling, nor did Beverly Rodgers, to whom I propounded all my theories,
have any notion of what was between Hortense and Charley. He only knew
that Charley was quite aware of the existence of John, but had always
been merely amused at the notion of him.

"So have you been merely amused," I reminded him.

"Not since that look I saw her give him, old chap. I know she wants him,
only not why she wants him. And Charley, you know--well, of course, poor
Charley's a banker, just a banker and no more; and a banker is merely
the ace in the same pack where the drummer is the two-spot. Our American
civilization should be called Drummer's Delight--and there's nothing in
your fire-eater to delight a drummer: he's a gentleman, he'll be only
so-so rich, and he's away back out of the lime-light, while poor old
Charley's a bounder, and worth forty millions anyhow, and right in the
centre of the glare. How should he see any danger in John?"

"I wonder if he hasn't begun to?"

"Well, perhaps. He and Hortense have been 'talking business'; I know
that. Oh--and why do you think she said he must go to New York? To make
a better deal for the fire-eater's phosphates than his fuddling old
trustee here was going to close with. Charley said that could be
arranged by telegram. But she made him go himself! She's extraordinary.
He'll arrive in town to-morrow, he'll leave next day, he'll reach here
by the Southern on Saturday night in time for our