All of which were lies, being leaf and stalk of that uneasiness which
rang so falsely in his voice and manner. Still, if Mademoiselle San Reve
took notice of his insincerity, she kept the fact to herself. Storri
drew her hand further within his arm, and the two walked slowly onward,
while the street lamps as they passed merged and separated and again
merged and separated their shadows as though the pair were agreeing and
disagreeing in endless alternation.
Richard, the next day, departed for New York as he had planned. Sending
Matzai and his luggage to the hotel, Richard on his arrival drove
straight from the station to Thirty, Broad. He glanced at a card as he
entered the elevator.
"Tenth floor!" was his word to the resplendent functionary in gold and
blue who presided in the elevator.
"Tenth floor!" cried the resplendent functionary in the sing-song of a
seaman taking soundings and calling the marks, and the elevator came to
a kind of bouncing stop.
"Mr. Bayard?" inquired Richard.
"Second floor to th' left," sang the blue and golden one; then the iron
door clashed and the cage flew on.
Richard entered a reception room, and from this outer harbor, like a
newly arrived ship sending up a signal, he dispatched his card to Mr.
Bayard. Under "Mr. Richard Storms" he wrote the words, "son of the late
Mr. Dudley Storms."
The stealthy, whispering individual, who spoke with a hiss and
scrutinized Richard as he took his card with a jealous intensity which
might have distinguished a hawk in a state of half alarm and whole
suspicion, presently returned. His air was altered to one of confidence.
"You are to come in, please!" he hissed like a respectful snake.
It was two hours later, five o'clock, when Richard emerged from that
private room of Mr. Bayard's. Taking the carriage which had waited, he
returned to the station and caught a train for Washington. A message
went to Matzai notifying that Mongol of what changes had been determined
on in the destinies of himself and the luggage.
It was the following morning at the hour of eight. Richard called for
Mr. Gwynn. When that severe personage had taken his proper station on
the rug, he rolled his piscatorial eye on Richard as though inviting
notice. The latter young gentleman was improving himself with coffee,
now and then pausing to thoughtfully glance over a roll of names.
"What were the last quotations on Anaconda stock?" demanded Richard,
still contemplating the names.
"Common, two hundred and eleven; preferred, two hundred and seventeen,
sir," and Mr. Gwynn creaked by way of ending the sentence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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