"I will be your friend," said the actor, emphatically, taking her arm and walking slowly down the street; "tell me how I find you thus."
"You won"t tell anyone if I do?" said Kitty, imploringly.
"On the honour of a gentleman," answered Wopples, with grave dignity.
Kitty told him how she had left Ballarat, but suppressed the name of her lover, as she did not want any blame to fall on him. But all the rest she told freely, and when Mr Wopples heard how on that night she had left the man who had ruined her, he swore a mighty oath.
"Oh, vile human nature," he said, in a sonorous tone, "to thus betray a confiding infant! Where," he continued, looking inquiringly at the serene sky, "where are the thunderbolts of Heaven that they fall not on such?"
No thunderbolt making its appearance to answer the question, Mr Wopples told Kitty he would take her home to the family, and as they were just starting out on tour again, she could come with them.
"But will Mrs Wopples receive me?" asked Kitty, timidly.
"My dear," said the actor, gravely, "my wife is a good woman, and a mother herself, so she can feel for a poor child like you, who has been betrayed through sheer innocence."
"You do not despise me?" said Kitty, in a low voice.
"My dear," answered Wopples, quietly, "am I so pure myself that I can judge others? Who am I," with an oratorical wave of the hand, "that I should cast the first stone?--ahem!--from Holy Writ. In future I will be your father; Mrs Wopples, your mother, and you will have ten brothers and sisters--all star artistes."
"How kind you are," sobbed Kitty, clinging trustfully to him as they went along.
"I only do unto others as I would be done by," said Mr Wopples, solemnly. "That sentiment," continued the actor, taking off his hat, "was uttered by One who, tho" we may believe or disbelieve in His divinity as a G.o.d, will always remain the sublimest type of perfect manhood the world has ever seen."
Kitty did not answer, and they walked quickly along; and surely this one good deed more than compensated for the rest of the actor"s failings.
CHAPTER VI
ON CHANGE
Young Australia has a wonderful love for the excitement of gambling--take him away from the betting ring and he goes straight to the share market to dabble in gold and silver shares. The Great Humbug Gold Mining Company is floated on the Melbourne market--a perfect fortune in itself, which influential men are floating in a kind of semi-philanthropic manner to benefit mankind at large, and themselves in particular. Report by competent geologists; rich specimens of the reef exhibited to the confiding public; company of fifty thousand shares at a pound each; two shillings on application; two shillings on allotment; the balance in calls which influential men solemnly a.s.sure confiding public will never be needed. Young Australia sees a chance of making thousands in a week; buys one thousand shares at four shillings--only two hundred pounds; shares will rise and Young Australia hopefully looks forward to pocketing two or three thousand by his modest venture of two hundred; company floated, shares rising slowly. Young Australia will not sell at a profit, still dazzled by his chimerical thousands. Calls must be made to put up machinery; shares have a downward tendency. Never mind, there will only be one or two calls, so stick to shares as parents of possible thousands. Machinery erected; now crushing; two or three ounces to ton a certainty. Shares have an upward tendency; washing up takes place--two pennyweights to ton. Despair! Shares run down to nothing, and Young Australia sees his thousands disappear like snow in the sun. The Great Humbug Reef proves itself worthy of its name, and the company collapses amid the groans of confiding public and secret joy of influential men, who have sold at the top price.
Vandeloup knew all about this sort of thing, for he had seen it occur over and over again in Ballarat and Melbourne. So many came to the web and never got out alive, yet fresh flies were always to be found.
Vandeloup was of a speculative nature himself, and had he been possessed of any surplus cash would, no doubt, have risked it in the jugglery of the share market, but as he had none to spare he stood back and amused himself with looking at the "spider and the fly" business which was constantly going on. Sometimes, indeed, the fly got the better of spider number one, but was unable to keep away from the web, and was sure to fall into the web of spider number two.
M. Vandeloup, therefore, considered the whole affair as too risky to be gone into without unlimited cash; but now he had a chance of making money, he determined to try his hand at the business. True, he knew that he was in for a swindle, but then he was behind the scenes, and would benefit by the knowledge he had gained. If the question at issue had really been that of getting gold out of the reef and paying dividends with the profits, Gaston would have snapped his fingers scornfully, and held aloof; but this was simply a running up of shares by means of a rich reef being struck. He intended to buy at the present market value, which was four shillings, and sell as soon as he could make a good profit--say, at one pound--so there was not much chance of him losing his money. The shares would probably drop again when the pocket of gold was worked out, but then that would be none of his affair, as he would by that time have sold out and made his pile. M. Vandeloup was a fly who was going straight into the webs of stockbroking spiders, but then he knew as much about this particular web as the spiders themselves.
Full of his scheme to make money, Vandeloup started for town to see a broker--first, however, having settled with Mrs Pulchop over Kitty"s disappearance. He had found a letter from Kitty in the bedroom, in which she had bidden him good-bye for ever, but this he did not show to Mrs Pulchop, merely stating to that worthy lady that his "wife" had left him.
"And it ain"t to be wondered at, the outraged angel," she said to Gaston, as he stood at the door, faultlessly dressed, ready to go into town; "the way you treated her were shameful."
Gaston shrugged his shoulders, lit a cigarette, and smiled at Mrs Pulchop.
"My dear lady," he said, blandly, "pray attend to your medicine bottles and leave my domestic affairs alone; you certainly understand the one, but I doubt your ability to come to any conclusion regarding the other."
"Fine words don"t b.u.t.ter no parsnips," retorted Mrs Pulchop, viciously; "and if Pulchop weren"t an Apoller, he had a kind heart."
"Spare me these domestic stories, please," said Vandeloup, coldly, "they do not interest me in the least; since my "wife"," with a sneer, "has gone, I will leave your hospitable roof. I will send for all my property either today or to-morrow, and if you make out your account in the meantime, my messenger will pay it. Good day!" and without another word Vandeloup walked slowly off down the path, leaving Mrs Pulchop speechless with indignation.
He went into town first, to the City of Melbourne Bank, and cashed Meddlechip"s cheque for six hundred pounds, then, calling a hansom, he drove along to the Hibernian Bank, where he had an account, and paid it into his credit, reserving ten pounds for his immediate use. Then he reentered his hansom, and went along to the office of a stockbroker, called Polglaze, who was a member of "The Bachelors", and in whose hands Vandeloup intended to place his business.
Polglaze was a short, stout man, scrupulously neatly dressed, with iron grey hair standing straight up, and a habit of dropping out his words one at a time, so that the listener had to construct quite a little history between each, in order to arrive at their meaning, and the connection they had with one another.
"Morning!" said Polglaze, letting the salutation fly out of his mouth rapidly, and then closing it again in case any other word might be waiting ready to pop out unknown to him.
Vandeloup sat down and stated his business briefly.
"I want you to buy me some Magpie Reef shares," he said, leaning on the table.
"Many?" dropped out of Polglaze"s mouth, and then it shut again with a snap. "Depends on the price," replied Vandeloup, with a shrug; "I see in the papers they are four shillings."
Mr Polglaze took up his share book, and rapidly turned over the leaves--found what he wanted, and nodded.
"Oh!" said Vandeloup, making a rapid mental calculation, "then buy me two thousand five hundred. That will be about five hundred pounds"
worth."
Mr Polglaze nodded; then whistled.
"Your commission, I presume," said Vandeloup, making another calculation, "will be threepence?"
"Sixpence," interrupted the stockbroker.
"Oh, I thought it was threepence," answered Vandeloup, quietly; "however, that does not make any difference to me. Your commission at that rate will be twelve pounds ten shillings?"
Polglaze nodded again, and sat looking at Vandeloup like a stony mercantile sphinx.
"If you will, then, buy me these shares," said Vandeloup, rising, and taking up his gloves and hat, "when am I to come along and see you?"
"Four," said Polglaze.
Today?" inquired Vandeloup.
A nod from the stockbroker.
"Very well," said Vandeloup, quietly, "I"ll give you a cheque for the amount, then. There"s nothing more to be said, I believe?" and he walked over to the door.
"Say!" from Polglaze.
"Yes," replied Gaston, indolently, swinging his stick to and fro.
"New?" inquired the stockbroker.
"You mean to this sort of thing?" said Vandeloup, looking at him, and receiving a nod in token of acquiescence, added, "entirely."
"Risky," dropped from the Polglaze mouth. "I never knew a gold mine that wasn"t," retorted Vandeloup, dryly.