For just a moment the situation had a precarious seeming for the
reviled young master of finance, and Paul's delicate face blanched a
little. Hamilton Burton regarded himself as the brother of monarchs and
it devolves upon the Crown to face the envious animosity of groundlings.
He leaned forward and said quietly to the chauffeur, "Swing around into
the open and drive on."
But recognition of the often-photographed face was not confined to the
assailants and instantly the focused humanity was being broken into
scattering factors by police officers who had not hitherto been visible.
The capitalist saw two struggling offenders being roughly hustled away
in the custody of uniformed captors and a patrolman swung to the running
board of the car and remained there as it rounded the square, with his
loosened club swinging ready for service in his right hand.
"You weren't struck, were you, Mr. Burton?" he asked in the tone of
solicitude to which Hamilton had grown accustomed, and which he accepted
as a part of his right.
He smiled. "No harm done but a broken glass--and the less noise made
about the incident the better I'll be pleased."
The car had now reached the south end of the area, where the bronze
Washington stands with his hand raised as if in dignified rebuke for the
noisy demonstrations he so often looks down upon, and where the Marquis
de Lafayette turns his back on the square and gazes at the
moving-picture posters of Fourteenth street.
For a minute or two the younger brother sat in nervous silence, and,
when he spoke, he put his question in a voice of anxious concern.
"Aren't you alarmed, Hamilton?"
"Alarmed?" The other raised his brows and smiled. His face was placid.
"Don't you remember, Paul, what Charles Fox once had to say on the
subject? At least he got the credit for saying it, which comes to the
same thing. 'A man of power has no other such luxury as being mobbed in
his carriage.'"
"I wasn't thinking of just that. I know you aren't afraid of any
physical attack. I was wondering what it all prophesies. We musicians
can feel the crescendo coming from the first mounting bars. Everywhere
there is a spirit of unrest; of revolution. Doesn't it mean a crash--a
panic?"
Again the man whose brain had turned the base metal of poverty into the
gold of Croesus smiled.
"I'm not a betting man, Paul, but I'd be willing to lay a moderate wager
that within the next year or two we shall see a panic that will leave
many scars and not a few wrecks."
"And that conviction doesn't alarm you?" The musician let his features
mirror his nervous surprise. If the principal had no fear, at least the
dependent was in terror.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account