Part 48

"It might prove my power, but I should lose my friend," she whispered.

"And that would be inconvenient!" he laughed. "Come, speak up! it's already granted, that you should know, Elaine."

"You're a very sweet boy," she said, going back to her seat.

"Which needs demonstration. But that you're a very sweet girl, needs no proof--unless----" looking at her with a meaning smile.

"Would that be proof, think you?" with a sidelong glance.

"I should accept it as such," he averred--"whenever you choose to confer it."

"Confer smacks of reward for service done," she said. "Will it bide till then?"

"Not if it may come sooner?"

"Wait--If you choose such pay, the----"

"I choose no pay," he interrupted.

"Then, the reward will be in kind," she answered enigmatically. "I want you----" She put one slender foot on the fender, and gazed at it, meditatively, while the firelight stole covert glances at the silken ankles thus exposed. "I want you to purchase for me, from Geoffrey Croyden, at par, his Virginia Development Company bonds," she said. "You can do it through your broker. I will give you a check, now----"

"Wait!" he said; "wait until he sells----"

"You think he won't sell?" she inquired.

"I think he will have to be satisfied, first, as to the purchaser--in plain words, that it isn't either you or I. We can't give Geoffrey money! The bonds are practically worthless, as he knows only too well."

"I had thought of that," she said, "but, isn't it met by this very plan? Your broker purchases the bonds for your account, but he, naturally, declines to reveal the identity of his customer. You can, truthfully, tell Geoffrey that you are not buying them--for you're not. And I--if he will only give me the chance--will assure him that I am not buying them from him--and you might confirm it, if he asked."

"Hum! It's juggling with the facts--though true on the face," said Macloud, "but it's pretty thin ice we're skating on."

"You are assuming he suspects or questions. He may take the two hundred thousand and ask no question."

"You don't for a moment believe that!" he laughed.

"It is doubtful," she admitted.

"And you wouldn't think the same of him, if he did."

"I admit it!" she said.

"So, we are back to the thin ice. I'll do what I can; but, you forgot, I am not at liberty to give his address to my brokers. I shall have to take their written offer to buy, and forward it to him, which, in itself will oblige me, at the same time, to tell him that I am not the purchaser."

"I leave it entirely to you--manage it any way you see fit. All I ask, is that you get him to sell. It's horrible to think of Geoffrey being reduced to the bare necessities of life--for that's what it means, when he goes 'where his income is sufficient for his needs.'"

"It's unfortunate, certainly: it would be vastly worse for a woman--to go from luxury to frugality, from everything to relatively nothing is positively pathetic. However, Croyden is not suffering--he has an attractive house filled with old things, good victuals, a more than competent cook, and plenty of society. He has cut out all the non-essentials, and does the essentials economically."

"You have been there?" she demanded. "You speak of your own knowledge, not from his inferences?"

"I have been there!" he answered.

"And the society--what of it?" she asked quickly.

"Better than our own!" he said, instantly.