You oughtn't to take
any extra risks. If your daughter should come back and not find you
here, if she returned to the Manor Cartier, and--"
He made an insistent gesture. "Hush! Be still, my friend--as good a
friend as a man could have. If my Zoe came back I'd like to feel--I'd
like to feel that I had saved things alone; that no woman's money made
me safe. If Zoe or if--"
He was going to say, "If Carmen came back," for his mind was moving in
past scenes; but he stopped short and looked around helplessly. Then
presently, as though by an effort, he added with a bravura note in his
voice:
"The world has been full of trouble for a long time, but there have
always been men to say to trouble, 'I am master, I have the mind to get
above it all.' Well, I am one of them."
There was no note of vanity or bombast in his voice as he said this,
and in his eyes that new underglow deepened and shone. Perhaps in this
instant he saw more of his future than he would speak of to anyone on
earth. Perhaps prevision was given him, and it was as the Big Financier
had said to Maitre Fille, that his philosophy was now, at the last, to be
of use to him.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70