The Market-Place Part 23

"That's a tolerably large order, isn't it?" Thorpe asked, calmly, moving a slow, inscrutable glance from one to the other of his callers.

"I could ask for nothing that would be a greater personal favour--and kindness"--Lord Chaldon interposed. His tone bore the stress of sincerity.

"That means a great deal to me, as you know, my Lord," replied Thorpe, "but I don't in the least understand--what is it that your friend wants?"

"Only that I shall not be buried in a bankrupt's grave," the suppliant answered, with a kind of embittered eagerness of utterance. "That I shall not see disgraced the honoured name that my father and his father bequeathed to my care!"

Thorpe's large, composed countenance betrayed a certain perplexity.

"There must be a mistake," he observed. "I don't even know this name of yours. I never heard it before."

The other's mobile face twisted itself in a grimace of incredulity. He had a conspicuously wide mouth, and its trick of sidelong extension at this moment was very unpleasant. "Ah, Herr Je! He never heard it," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, turning nervously to the Marquis. "Would to the good G.o.d you never had!" he told Thorpe, with suppressed excitement.

Lord Chaldon, his own voice shaken a little, interposed with an explanation. "My friend is the head--the respected head--of the firm of Fromentin Brothers. I think you have--have dealings with them."

Thorpe, after a furtive instant of bewilderment, opened his mouth.

"Oh! I see," he said. "I know what you mean now. With the French p.r.o.nunciation, I didn't recognize the name. I've always heard it called 'Fromen'-tin' here in London. Oh, yes, of course--Fromen'tin Brothers."

His lips shut tight again at this. The listeners had caught no helpful clue from the tone of his words. They exchanged a glance, and then M.

Fromentin spoke.

"Mr. Thorpe," he began, slowly, with an obvious effort at self-repression. "It is a very simple story. Our house is an old one.

My father's grandfather organized the finance of the commissariat of General Bonaparte in Egypt. He created the small beginnings of the carpet and rug importation from Asia Minor. His son, and in turn his son, followed him. They became bankers as well as importers. They helped very greatly to develop the trade of the Levant. They were not avaricious men, or usurers. It is not in our blood. Your Chairman, Lord Chaldon, who honours me so highly by calling me his friend--he will a.s.sure you that we have a good name in the East. Our banks have befriended the people, and never oppressed or injured them. For that reason--I will say perhaps for that reason--we have never become a very rich house. It is possible to name bankers who have made large fortunes out of Egypt. It was different with us. Lord Chaldon will tell you that of our own free will--my two brothers and I--of our own choice we consented to lose a fifth of all our possessions, rather than coin into gold by force the tears and blood of the wretched fellaheen."

"Yes--I have never known a more honourable or humane action," put in the Marquis, fervently.

"And then my brothers die--Polydor, who lived mostly at Smyrna, and whose estate was withdrawn from the business by his widow, and Augustin, who lived here in London after 1870, and died--it is now six years ago.

He left a son, Robert, who is my nephew, and my partner. He is now of an age--perhaps thirty years. He was a small child when he came to London--he has become more English than the English themselves. His activity and industry are very great; he forms plans of such magnitude and numbers that they would compel his grandfather to turn in his coffin. I am in indifferent health. I live much at Homburg and Marienbad and at Cairo. Practically speaking, I have retired from business. There remain branches of our house--in several places--but the London house has become the centre of all things--and Robert has become the London house. This I make plain to your mind, do I, Mr. Thorpe?"

The other, with his chin sunk within the collar of his white waistcoat, and scrutinizing the narrator with a steadfast though impa.s.sive glance, made the faintest possible nod of a.s.sent.

"I had great confidence in Robert," the old man went on. His eyes were dimming with tears, and his voice quavered uncertainly. "His plans seemed wise, even if they risked more than formerly. The conditions of business are wholly altered since my youth--and it was best, I thought, to make Robert free to act under these conditions, which he understood much better than I could pretend to do. Thus it was that when he said it was necessary for Fromentin Brothers to belong to the Stock Exchange, I did not object. He was active and bold and clever, and he was in the thick of the fight. Therefore he should be the judge in all things. And that is our ruin. In the time of the South African excitement, he won a great deal of money. Then he lost it all and more. Then gambling began, and his fortunes went now up, now down, but always, as his books show to me now--sinking a little on the average. He grew more adventurous--more careless. He put many small counters upon different numbers on the table. You know what I mean? And in an accursed moment, because other gamblers were doing the same, he sold two thousand of your shares, without having them in his hands. Voila! He wishes now to put a bullet through his brain. He proposes that as the fitting end of Fromentin Freres."

Thorpe, his chin on his breast, continued to regard the melancholy figure opposite with a moody eye. It seemed a long minute before he broke the tense silence by a sigh of discomfort. "I do not discuss these things with anybody," he said then, coldly. "If I had known who you were, I don't think you'd have got in."

The Marquis of Chaldon intuitively straightened himself in his chair, and turned toward the speaker a glance of distressed surprise.

"Or no--I beg your pardon," Thorpe hastened to add, upon the instant hint of this look--"that doesn't convey my meaning. Of course, our Chairman brings whom he pleases. His friends--as a matter of course--are our friends. What I should have said was that if this had been mentioned beforehand to me, I should have explained that it wasn't possible to discuss that particular business."

"But--pardon me"--said Lord Chaldon, in a quiet, very gentle, yet insistent voice, which seemed now to recall to its listeners the fact that sovereigns and chancellors had in their day had attentive ears for its tones--"pardon me, but why should it not be possible?"

Thorpe frowned doubtfully, and shifted his position in his chair. "What could I say, if it were discussed?" he made vague retort. "I'm merely one of the Directors. You are our Chairman, but you see he hasn't found it of any use to discuss it with you. There are hard and fast rules about these things. They run their natural course. You are not a business man, my Lord----"

"Oh, I think I may be called a 'business man,'" interposed the n.o.bleman, suavely. "They would tell you so in Calcutta, I think, and in Cairo too.

When one considers it, I have transacted a great deal of business--on the behalf of other people. And if you will permit me--I do not impute indirection, of course--but your remark seems to require a footnote. It is true that I am Chairman of the Board on which you are a Director--but it is not quite the whole truth. I as Chairman know absolutely nothing about this matter. As I understand the situation, it is not in your capacity as a Director that you know anything about it either. Yet----"

He paused, as if suddenly conscious of some impropriety in this domestic frankness before a third party, and Thorpe pounced through his well-mannered hesitation with the swiftness of a bird of prey.

"Let me suggest," he said roundly, lifting his head and poising a hand to hold attention, while he thought upon what it was he should suggest--"this is what I would say. It seems rather irregular, doesn't it? to debate the matter in the presence of an outsider. You see it yourself. That is partly what I meant. Now I have met Mr. Fromentin," he gave the name its English vowels with an obstinate emphasis, "and I have heard his statement. You have heard it too. If he wishes to lay more facts before us, why, well and good. But then I would suggest that he leave the matter in our hands, to discuss and look into between ourselves. That seems to you the proper course, doesn't it, Lord Chaldon?"

The French banker had been studying with strained acuteness the big lymphatic mask of the Director, with sundry sharp glances aside at the Chairman. The nervous changes on his alert, meagre old face showed how intently he followed every phase of their talk. A certain sardonic perception of evil in the air curled on his lip when he saw the Marquis accede with a bow and wave of the hand to Thorpe's proposition. Then he made his bow in turn, and put the best face possible upon the matter.

"Naturally I consult your convenience--and the proprieties," he said, with an effect of proud humility. "There are but a few other facts to submit. My nephew has already paid, in differences upon those accursed two thousand shares, a sum of nearly 30,000 pounds. I have the figures in my pocket--but they are fixed in my head as well. Twenty-eight thousand five hundred, those differences already amount to, not to speak of interest. At the last settlement, August 1st, the price per share was 15 pounds. That would make 30,000 pounds more, if we bought now--or a total of practically 60,000 pounds. Eh bien! I beg for the privilege of being allowed to buy these shares now. It is an unpleasant confession to make, but the firm of Fromentin Freres will be made very poor by this loss of 60,000 pounds. It was not always so, but it is so now. My nephew Robert has brought it into that condition. You see my shame at this admission. With all my own means, and with his sister's marriage portion, we can make up this sum of 30,000 pounds, and still enable the firm to remain in existence. I have gone over the books very painstakingly, since I arrived in London. It can be kept afloat, and it can be brought back to safe and moderately profitable courses--if nothing worse happens. With another six weeks like the last, this will not be at all possible. We shall have the cup of dishonour thrust between our teeth. That will be the end of everything."

M. Fromentin finished in tremulous, grave tones. After looking with blurred eyes for a moment into Thorpe's face, he bowed his head, and softly swayed the knees upon which his thin, dark hands maintained their clutch. Not even the revelation of hair quite white at the roots, unduly widening the track of parting on the top of his dyed head, could rob this movement of its mournful dignity.

Thorpe, after a moment's pause, took a pencil and paper from the desk, and made a calculation. He bit his lips and frowned at the sight of these figures, and set down some others, which seemed to please him no more. Then, with a sudden gesture as of impatience, he rose to his feet.

"How much is that sister's marriage portion you spoke of?" he asked, rather brusquely.

The French gentleman had also risen. He looked with an air of astonishment at his questioner, and then hardened his face. "I apologize for mentioning it," he said, with brevity. "One does not speak of family affairs."

"I asked you how much it was," pursued Thorpe, in a masterful tone. "A man doesn't want to rob a girl of her marriage portion."

"I think I must not answer you," the other replied, hesitatingly. "It was the fault of my emotion to introduce the subject. Pray leave the young lady out of account."

"Then I've nothing more to say," Thorpe declared, and seated himself again with superfluous energy. He scowled for a little at the disorder of his desk, and then flung forth an angry explanation. "If you evade fair questions like that, how can you expect that I will go out of my way to help you?"

"Oh, permit me, Mr. Thorpe"--the Marquis intervened soothingly--"I think you misapprehend. My friend, I am sure, wished to evade nothing. He had the idea that he was at fault in--in alluding to a purely domestic matter as--as a--what shall I say?--as a plea for your consideration."

He turned to the old banker. "You will not refuse to mention the sum to me, will you, my friend?"

M. Fromentin shrugged his shoulders. "It is ten thousand pounds," he replied, almost curtly.

Thorpe was seemingly mollified. "Very well, then," he said. "I will sell you 2,000 shares at ten pounds."

The others exchanged a wondering look.

"Monsieur," the banker stammered--"I see your meaning. You will forgive me--it is very well meant indeed by you--but it was not my proposition.

The market-price is fifteen pounds--and we were prepared to pay it."

Thorpe laughed in a peremptory, gusty way. "But you can't pay more than I ask!" he told him, with rough geniality. "Come, if I let you and your nephew in out of the cold, what kind of men-folk would you be to insist that your niece should be left outside? As I said, I don't want her money. I don't want any woman's money. If I'm going to be nice to the rest of the family, what's the objection to my being nice to her?"

"Monsieur," said the Frenchman, after an instant's reflection, "I offer none. I did not at the moment perceive the spirit of your words, but I recognize now that it was delicacy itself. I tender you the most profound thanks--for ALL the family."

After some further conversation the elder Fromentin took his departure.

Lord Chaldon apparently proposed to accompany him, but Thorpe begged him to remain, and he put aside his hat once more and resumed his seat.

Thorpe walked about a little, with his hands in his pockets, in a restless way. "If it isn't unpleasant to you, I think I'll light a cigar," he said suddenly, and moved over to the cabinet. He poured out a drink of neat brandy, as well, and furtively swallowed it. Then he came back, preceded by a cloud of smoke.

"It went terribly against the grain," he said, with a rueful laugh. "I'd sworn to let no Jew off with an inch of hide left on him--and here three of them have been wheedled out of my grip already."

"Jews?" exclaimed the Marquis, much puzzled. "Did you--did you think Fromentin was a Jew? G.o.d bless me! he's no more one than I am! Why, not even so much, for there IS a Hersch.e.l.l in my pedigree. Why, dear man, they were Crusaders!"

Thorpe smiled somewhat sheepishly. "I never noticed much," he said. "It was a foreign-looking name. I took it for granted."

Lord Chaldon bent his brows a little. "Yes-s"--he murmured, meditatively. "I've heard it mentioned that your enterprise was suspected of an anti-Semitic twist. Do you mind my talking a little with you about that?"

"Oh, not at all," the other answered with languid acquiescence, as he seated himself.