Ffrench drew a long breath. After a moment he again looked at the driver.
"I"ll come," he accepted. "And, thank you."
It was Lestrange who smiled this time, with a sudden and enchanting warmth of mirth.
"We"ll try to amuse you," he promised.
II
It was a business consultation that was being held in Mr. Ffrench"s firelit library, in spite of the presence of a tea-table and the young girl behind it. A consultation between the two partners who composed the Mercury Automobile Company, of whom the lesser was speaking with a certain anecdotal weight.
"And he said he was losing too much time on the turns; so the next round he took the bend at seventy-two miles an hour. He went over, of course. The third car we"ve lost this year; I"m glad the season"s closed."
Emily Ffrench gave an exclamation, her velvet eyes widening behind their black lashes.
"But the driver! Was the poor driver hurt, Mr. Bailey?"
"He wasn"t killed, Miss Emily," answered Bailey, with a tinge of pensive regret. He was a large, ruddy, white-haired man, with the slow and careful habit of speech sometimes found in those who live much with ma.s.sive machinery. "No, he wasn"t killed; he"s in the hospital.
But he wrecked as good a car as ever was built, through sheer foolishness. It costs money."
Mr. Ffrench responded to the indirect appeal with more than usual irritation, his level gray eyebrows contracting.
"We ought to have better drivers. Why do you not get better men, Bailey? You wanted to go into this racing business; you said the cars needed advertising. My brother always attended to that side of the factory affairs, while he lived, with you as his manager. Now it is altogether in your hands. Why do you not find a proper driver?"
"Perhaps my hands are not used to holding so much," mused Bailey unresentfully. "A man might be a good manager, maybe, and weak as a partner. It isn"t the same job. But a first-cla.s.s driver isn"t easy to get, Mr. Ffrench. There"s Delmar killed, and George tied up with another company, and Dorian retired, all this last season; and we don"t want a foreigner. There"s only one man I like--"
"Well, get him. Pay him enough."
Bailey hunched himself together and crossed his legs.
"Yes, sir. He"s beaten our cars--and others--every race lately, with poorer machines, just by sheer pretty driving. He drives fast, yet he don"t knock out his car. But there"s a lot after him--there"s just one way we could get him, and get him for keeps."
"And that?"
"He"s ambitious; he wants to get into something more solid than racing. If we offered to make him manager, he"d come and put some new ideas, maybe, into the factory, and race our cars wherever we chose to enter them. I know him pretty well."
The proposition was advanced tentatively, with the hesitation of one venturing in unknown places. But Ethan Ffrench said nothing, his gray eyes fixed on the hearth.
"He understands motor construction and designing, and he"s been with big foreign firms," Bailey resumed, after waiting. "He"d be useful around; I can"t be everywhere. What he"d do for us in racing would help a whole lot. It"s very well to make a fine standard car, but it needs advertising to keep people remembering. And men like to say "my machine is the same as Lestrange won the Cup race with." They like it."
"I don"t know," said Mr. Ffrench slowly, "that it is dignified for the manager of the Mercury factory to be a racing driver."
"The Christine cars are driven by the son of the man who makes them,"
was the response. "Some drive their own."
"The son of the man who makes them," repeated the other. He turned his face still more to the quivering fire, his always severe expression hardening strangely and bitterly. "The son--"
The girl rose to draw the crimson curtains before the windows and to push an electric switch, filling the room with a subdued golden glow in place of the late afternoon grayness. Her delicate face, as she regarded her uncle, revealed most strongly its characteristic over-earnestness and a sensitive reflection of the moods of those around her. Emily Ffrench"s childhood had been pa.s.sed in a Canadian convent, and something of its mysticism clung about her. As the cheerful change she had wrought flashed over the room, Mr. Ffrench held out his hand in a gesture of summons, so that she came across to sit on the broad arm of his chair during the rest of the conference, her soft gaze resting on the third member.
"My adopted son and nephew having no such talents, we must do the best we can," Mr. Ffrench stated, with his most precise coldness. "Being well-born and well-bred, he has no taste for a mechanic"s labor or for circus performances with automobiles in public. Who is your man, Bailey?"
"Lestrange, sir. You must have heard of him often."
"I never read racing news."
"I read ours," said Bailey darkly. "We"ve been licked often enough by him. And he"s straight--he"s one of the few men who"ll stop at the grand-stand and lose time reporting a smash-up and sending help around. Every man on the track likes Darling Lestrange."
"Likes _whom_?"
Bailey flushed brick-red.
"I didn"t mean to call him that. He signs himself D. Lestrange, and some of them started reading it Darling, joking because he was such a favorite and because they liked him anyhow. It"s just a nickname."
Emily laughed out involuntarily, surprised.
"I beg pardon," she at once apologized, "but it sounded so frivolous."
"If you try this man, you had better keep that nickname out of the factory," Mr. Ffrench advised stiffly. "What respect could the workmen feel for a manager with such a t.i.tle? If possible, you would do well to prevent them from recognizing him as the racing driver."
Bailey, who had risen at the chime of a clock, halted amazed.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Respect for him!" he echoed. "Not recognize him! Why, there isn"t a man on the place who wouldn"t give his ears to be seen on the same side of the street with Lestrange, let alone to work under him. They _do_ read the racing news. That part of it will be all right, if I can have him."
"If it is necessary--"
"I think it is, sir."
Emily moved slightly, pushing back her yellow-brown curls under the ribbon that banded them. On a sudden impulse her uncle looked up at her.
"What is your opinion?" he questioned. "If d.i.c.k had been listening I should have asked his, and I fancy yours is fully as valuable. Come, shall we have this racing manager?"
Astonished, she looked from her uncle to the other man. And perhaps it was the real anxiety and suspense of Bailey"s expression that drew her quick reply.
"Let us, uncle. Since we need him, let us have him."
"Very well," said Mr. Ffrench. "You hear, Bailey."
There was a long silence after the junior partner"s withdrawal.
"Come where I can see you, Emily," her uncle finally demanded. "I liked your decided answer a few moments ago; you can reason. How long have you been a daughter in my house?"
"Six years," she responded, obediently moving to a low chair opposite.
"I was fifteen when you took me from the convent--to make me very, very happy, dear."