"Miss Clifford, for a merchant"s daughter, and the sleeping partner in a great mercantile house, you appear to nourish very disrespectful ideas of accounts and the office desk," said he, with revolting indifference. "My brother would be shocked. I feel myself extremely flattered that my modest pen has had the power of awakening so much interest, and as to the disappointment, I do not give up the hope of at last succeeding in bringing you to a better opinion of my performances at the office desk."
Jessie made no reply. She completely lost her self-control at this way of turning affront into compliment, and at the smiling calm with which the man[oe]uvre was carried out.
Fortunately at this moment the door opened, and Sandow entered.
"The telegrams are sent off," said he. "Now I am again at your disposal. I suppose dinner will soon be ready, Jessie?"
"I have still some necessary orders to give, which I will do at once."
And hastily, as if taking to flight before the new arrival, but not without casting on him another glance of contempt, she left the room.
"Well, what do you think of Jessie?" said Sandow, as soon as the brothers were alone; "and what progress have you made with her?"
"Progress! Surely, Frank, you did not quite expect me to make her a proposal of marriage at the first interview!"
"But at least you might lead the way to it."
"The way has opened most successfully," Gustave a.s.sured him. "We have already had a most lively dispute."
"Dispute! What do you mean?" and Sandow, who had seated himself near his brother, looked up as if he could hardly believe his ears. "Is that the way you begin your courtship?"
"Why not? At least it prevents indifference. That I certainly need not fear from Miss Clifford. She is prejudiced against me to the highest degree, and looks upon my leaving my country at your call as a kind of treachery against it."
"Yes, the girl has her head full of romantic ideas," said Sandow angrily. "That is owing to the sentimental, high-flown education she received from her mother. Clifford could not be induced to oppose it, although otherwise his understanding was healthy enough. He idolized his only daughter, and thought her everything that is good and beautiful. You will have to contend with these exaggerated ideas when Jessie is your wife."
Around Gustave Sandow"s lips played a half ironical smile as he replied--
"Do you, then, think it is a settled thing that she will become my wife? At present I seem to have the most brilliant prospects of refusal."
"Stupid girlish whims! nothing more. She has taken it into her head that marriage must be preceded by a love romance. But you"--and here Sandow"s eyes rested on his brother"s handsome person--"it need not be difficult for you to gain ground with her, and my authority will do the rest. Jessie is far too dependent a character not to be led at last."
"Well, I have not seen any symptoms of this dependence myself,"
remarked Gustave drily. "Miss Clifford was tolerably energetic when she gave me the flattering information that my acquaintance was one of the bitterest disappointments of her life."
Sandow wrinkled his forehead.
"She told you that!"
"Literally, and accompanied the speech with the necessary air of dislike and contempt. She is a quite peculiar mixture of maidenly reserve and genuine American self-consciousness. In our country a young girl would hardly have read a total stranger such a lecture."
"Oh! no; Jessie is thoroughly German," said Sandow. "She is the living image of her mother, and has not a single trait of her American father.
But never mind that now. Let us come to the point. I never felt any doubt as to your acceptance of my proposal; that it has taken place so quickly and unreservedly is very agreeable to me, since it proves that, in spite of all your idealistic scribbling, you have managed to preserve a clear, cool head capable of making a calculation, which is just what is wanted here. Jessie is in every respect a brilliant match, such as you would scarcely have found under other circ.u.mstances. For me, the first recommendation of the plan is that it will keep Clifford"s money in the firm. Our interests are therefore identical, and I hope we shall be satisfied with each other."
"I hope so too," said Gustave laconically.
The purely business view taken by his brother of the projected marriage seemed to surprise him as little as the judgment on his scribbling hurt him.
"The arrangement, then, remains as settled in our letters," continued Sandow. "For the present you enter the office as a volunteer in order to learn your new calling. That is not difficult for anyone gifted with the necessary education and intelligence. All beyond requires merely habit and practice. As soon as your engagement with Jessie is openly announced, you will have a share in the business. So don"t delay your explanation too long. As an heiress, Jessie is naturally much run after, and in little more than a year she will be of age. Besides, at the present moment I have some large undertakings in view, and must be certain of complete control over the whole capital."
"And therefore Miss Clifford and I must marry," added Gustave. "One sees that you are accustomed to make the most of a fortunate conjuncture, whether of men or dollars."
There was a touch of mockery in these words, but Sandow did not appear to notice it. In his reply lay the same icy indifference which he had displayed in his conversation with Jessie.
"One must reckon with men as with figures; in that lies the whole secret of success. At all events, you have every reason to thank the present conjuncture. Besides all the other advantages, it secures my money to you. You know I have no other relative or heir."
"No other! Really?" asked Gustave in a peculiar tone, while he gazed fixedly at his brother.
"No!"
In that one short word what unbounded severity and determination!
"Then you have not altered your views. I thought that now years have rolled by you might have learnt to look differently on the past."
"Silence!" interrupted Sandow. "Name it not! The past has no existence, shall have no existence for me. I buried it when I left Europe for ever."
"And the recollection of it too!"
"Certainly! and I will not have it recalled by others. You have already attempted it several times in your letters, and I imagined my dislike to the subject had been shown plainly enough. Why do you always return to it? Is it to distress me, or"--here he fixed a threatening, penetrating look on his brother--"does some scheme lie at the bottom of this persistency?"
Gustave shrugged his shoulders slightly.
"Why should you think that? I asked in my own interests. Since the question of inheritance is now before us, you can easily understand the motive."
"Decidedly. You have become uncommonly practical I see, and it is much better for you to have become so without paying the heavy price for your experience which mine has cost me."
Gustave became suddenly serious, and laid his hand on his brother"s arm.
"Yes, Frank, a heavy price it must indeed have been, since it has made you another man. I do not find a single trace of what you were at home."
Sandow laughed bitterly.
"No, thank G.o.d! there is not much left of the soft-hearted fool who lived for every one, who trusted every one, and in the end must pay the price of his blind faith like a criminal. Whenever that blind confidence has cost a man, as it has me, honour, happiness, nay, existence itself, he will for the future manage his affairs after a different fashion. But now, not another word of the past. I have cast it from me; let it rest."
"Dinner is ready," announced a servant, throwing open the door.
The brothers rose; the turn the conversation had taken made any interruption welcome to both. They entered the adjoining dining-room, where Jessie already awaited them. Gustave had in a moment regained his usual manner. He approached the young lady and offered her his arm as if nothing in the world had come between them.
"Miss Clifford, I have the honour to introduce myself as a volunteer in the house of Clifford and Company. I may, therefore, now regard you as my second chief, and respectfully offer you my humble services."
And without paying any attention to the frigid manner of his second chief, he took the arm which Jessie did not dare to refuse, and led her to the table.
CHAPTER III.
The house of Clifford, as already hinted, was one of the most important in the town. The numerous staff of clerks and attendants, and the constant activity which reigned there, betrayed even to a stranger the importance of the great mercantile house, whose head, indeed, held a most conspicuous place in the commercial world. Gustave Sandow, who, though now holding the modest post of a volunteer, was destined later to share that dignity, had now entered on his new calling, but showed so far very little enthusiasm for it. His brother noticed with great displeasure that he looked on the whole thing as a kind of entertainment with which he amused himself, and of which the chief attraction was its novelty. He allowed little indeed to be seen of the austere dignity of the future partner, while he made extensive use of his freedom as a volunteer. The various objects of interest in the town, its environs, its society, seemed far more attractive to him than his brother"s office. The latter remarked on it in his usual sharp manner, and requested that more interest might be shown in business matters.