"I think not," said he. "Every steamship has-been watched for days, and we are quite positive she has not sailed. There is the possibility, however, that she may, have been taken by motor to some out-of-the-way place where she will await the chance to slip away by means of a specially chartered ship. It is this very thing that we are seeking to prevent. I do not hesitate to admit that if she once gets the child to New York, we may expect serious difficulty in obtaining our rights.
I humbly confess that I have not the means to fight her in a land where her father"s millions count for so much. I am a poor man. My estates are heavily involved through litigation started by my forbears. You understand my position?" He said it with a rather pathetic twist of his lips.
"I understand that you received a million in cash at the time of the wedding," said I. "What has become of all that?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Can you expect me to indulge an extravagant wife, who seeks to become a social queen, and still save anything out of a paltry million?"
"Oh, I see. This is a new phase of the matter that hasn"t been revealed to me. It was she who spent the million?"
"After a fashion, yes," said he, without a spark of shame. "The chateau was in rather a dilapidated condition, and she insisted on its restoration. It was also necessary to spend a great deal of money in the effort to secure for herself a certain position in society. My own position was not sufficient for her. She wanted to improve upon it, I might say. We entertained a great deal, and lavishly. She was accustomed to gratifying every taste and whim that money could purchase.
Naturally, it was not long before we were hard pressed for funds. I went to New York a year ago and put the matter clearly before her father. He met me with another proposition which rather disgusted me.
I am a man who believes in fair dealing. If I have an obligation I meet it. Isn"t that true, Mr. Schymansky?"
"It is," said the lawyer.
"Her father revoked his original plan and suggested an alternative.
He proposed to put the million in trust for his granddaughter, our Rosemary,--a name, sir, that I abominate and which was given to her after my wife had sulked for weeks,--the interest to be paid to his daughter until the child reached the age of twenty-one. Of course, I could not accept such an arrangement. It--"
"Acting on my advice,--for I was present at the interview,--the Count emphatically declined to entertain--"
"Never mind, Schymansky," broke in the Count petulantly. "What is the use of going into all that?" He appeared to reflect for a moment. "Will you be good enough to leave the room for awhile, Mr. Schymansky? I think Mr. Smart and I can safely manage a friendly compact without your a.s.sistance. Eh, Mr. Smart?"
I couldn"t feel sorry for Schymansky. He hadn"t the backbone of an angleworm. If I were a lawyer and a client of mine were to speak to me as Pless spoke to him, I firmly believe I should have had at least a fair sprinkling of his blood upon my hands.
"I beg of you, Count, to observe caution and--"
"If you please, sir!" cut in the Count, with the austerity that makes the continental n.o.bleman what he is.
"If you require my services, you will find me in the--"
"Not in the hall, I trust," said his client in a most insulting way.
Schymansky left the room without so much as a glance at me. He struck me as a man who knew his place better than any menial I"ve ever seen.
I particularly noticed that not even his ears were red.
"Rather rough way to handle a lawyer, it strikes me," said I. "Isn"t he any good?"
"He is as good as the best of them," said the Count, lighting his fourth or fifth cigarette. "I have no patience with the way they muddle matters by always talking law, law, law! If it were left to me, I should dismiss the whole lot of them and depend entirely upon my common-sense. If it hadn"t been for the lawyers, I am convinced that all this trouble could have been avoided, or at least amicably adjusted out of court. But I am saddled with half a dozen of them, simply because two or three banks and as many private interests are inclined to be officious. They claim that my interests are theirs, but I doubt it, by Jove, I do. They"re a blood-sucking lot, these bankers. But I sha"n"t bore you with trivialities. Now here is the situation in a word. It is quite impossible for me to prosecute the search for my child without financial a.s.sistance from outside sources. My funds are practically exhausted and the banks refuse to extend my credit. You have publicly declared yourself to be my friend and well-wisher. I have asked you to come here to-night, Mr. Smart, to put you to the real test, so to I speak. I want one hundred thousand dollars for six months."
While I was prepared in a sense for the request, the brazenness with which he put it up to me took my breath away. I am afraid that the degage manner in which he paid compliment to my affluence was too much for me. I blinked my eyes rapidly for a second or two and then allowed them to settle into a stare of perplexity.
"Really, Mr. Pless," I mumbled in direct contrast to his sangfroid, "you--you surprise me."
He laughed quietly, almost rea.s.suringly, as he leaned forward in his chair the better to study my face. "I hope you do not think that I expect you to produce so much ready money to-night, Mr. Smart. Oh, no!
Any time within the next few days will be satisfactory. Take your time, sir. I appreciate that it requires time to arrange for the--"
I held up my hand with a rather lofty air. "Was it one hundred and fifty thousand that you mentioned, or--"
"That was the amount," said he, a sudden glitter in his eyes.
I studied the ceiling with a calculating squint, as if trying to approximate my balance in bank. He watched me closely, almost breathlessly. At last, unable to control his eagerness, he said:
"At the usual rate of interest, you understand."
"Certainly," I said, and resumed my calculations. He got the impression that I was annoyed by the interruption.
"I beg your pardon," he said.
"What security can you give, Mr. Pless?" I demanded in a very business-like way.
"Oh, you Americans!" he cried, his face beaming with premature relief.
"You will pin us down, I see. I do not wonder that you are so rich. I shall give you my personal note, Mr. Smart, for the amount, secured by a mortgage--a supplementary mortgage--on the Chateau Tarnowsy."
Tarnowsy! Now I remembered everything. Tarnowsy! The name struck my memory like a blow. What a stupid dolt I had been! The whole world had rung wedding bells for the marriage of the Count Maris Tarnowsy, scion of one of the greatest Hungarian houses, and Aline, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Gwendolen and Jasper t.i.tus, of New York, Newport, Tuxedo, Hot Springs, Palm Beach and so forth. Jasper t.i.tus, the banker and railway magnate, whose name as well as his hand was to be seen in every great financial movement of the last two decades!
What a fool I was not to recall a marriage that had been not only on the lips of every man, woman and child in the States but on mine in particular, for I had bitterly execrated the deliverance into bondage of this young girl of whose beauty and charm I had heard so much.
The whole spectacular travesty came back to me with a rush, as I sat there in the presence of the only man who had ever been known to get the better of Jasper t.i.tus in a trade. I remembered with some vividness my scornful att.i.tude toward the newspapers of the metropolis, all of which fairly sloshed over with the news of the great event weeks beforehand and weeks afterward. I was not the only man who said harsh things about Jasper t.i.tus in those days. I was but one of the mult.i.tude.
I also recalled my scathing comments at the time of the divorce proceedings. They were too caustic to be repeated here. It is only necessary to state that the proceedings came near to putting two friendly nations into very bad temper. Statesmen and diplomats were drawn into the mess, and jingo congressmen on our side of the water introduced sensational bills bearing specifically upon the international marriage market. Newspaper humourists stood together as one man in advocating a revision of the tariff upward on all foreign purchases coming under the head of the sons of old masters. As I have said before I did not follow the course of the nasty squabble very closely, and was quite indifferent as to the result. I have a vague recollection of some one telling me that a divorce had been granted, but that is all. There was also something said about a child.
My pleasant little mystery had come to a sharp and rather depressing end. The lovely countess about whom I had cast the veil of secrecy was no other than the much-discussed Aline t.i.tus and Mr. Pless the expensive Count Tarnowsy. Cold, hard facts took the place of indulgent fancies.
The dream was over. I was sorry to have it end. A joyous enthusiasm had attended me while I worked in the dark; now a dreary reality stared me in the face. The sparkle was gone. Is there anything so sad as a gla.s.s of champagne when it has gone flat and lifeless?
My cogitations were brief. The Count after waiting for a minute or two to let me grasp the full importance of the sacrifice he was ready to make in order to secure me against personal loss, blandly announced that there were but two mortgages on the chateau, whereas nearly every other place of the kind within his knowledge had thrice as many.
"You wish me to accept a third mortgage on the place?" I inquired, pursing my lips.
"The Chateau is worth at least a million," he said earnestly. "But why worry about that, Mr. Smart? My personal note is all that is necessary.
The matter of a mortgage is merely incidental. I believe it is considered business-like by you Americans, so I stand quite ready to abide by your habits. I shall soon be in possession of a million in any event, so you are quite safe in advancing me any amount up to--"
"Just a moment, Count," I interrupted, leaning forward in my chair.
"May I inquire where and from whom you received the impression that I am a rich man?"
He laughed easily. "One who indulges a whim, Mr. Smart, is always rich.
Schloss Rothhoefen condemns you to the purgatory of Croesus."
"Croesus would be a poor man in these days," said I. "If he lived in New York he would be wondering where his next meal was to come from.
You have made a very poor guess as to my wealth. I am not a rich man."
He eyed me coldly. "Have you suddenly discovered the fact, sir?"
"What do you mean?"
"I suggest a way in which you can be of a.s.sistance to me, and you hesitate. How am I to take it, sir?"
His infernal air of superiority aggravated me. "You may take it just as you please, Mr. Pless."
"I beg you to remember that I am Count Tarnowsy. Mr.--"