"Mr. Dround is engaged with his doctor," she said. "Won"t you step into the garden with me?"
Behind the house, hidden from a cross street by a brick wall, was a little green lawn with one old willow tree. It was a pretty, restful kind of place, hardly to be looked for so near the heart of the city. In one corner there was a stone bench and some chairs, and a table with books and tea things. Across the top of the wall one could see a line of gray where the horizon met the lake.
"Pleasant place!" I exclaimed, looking across the little garden out to the lake.
"Yes, it makes the city in summer tolerable."
Her eyes followed mine as they rested on a bit of marble, old and sculptured with yellow figures, that had been set into the wall.
"I brought that from Siena," she explained. "It was in an old wall there. It reminds me of Italy," she added, touching the marble lightly with her fingers.
Suddenly she turned to me with a swift question:--
"So you"re to be our new Mr. Carmichael?"
It was not woman"s mere haphazard quizzing: she demanded the truth.
"No," I replied gravely, after a moment"s hesitation. "Mrs. Dround, I have come here to tell Mr. Dround that I must decline his offer. I have other--"
"You are going over to them!" she cried quickly. There was no reproach in her voice, but she gave me a keen look that read to the bottom of my mind. "You will be a tool for the Jew and the Irishman!" There was a smile on her lips and a touch of scorn in her voice. "Tell me, why?"
And I told her, as I might a man whom I trusted, just what the situation was--how disastrous had been the row with Carmichael, and how foolish the cause, as I thought. She listened without questions, and I went on to cover the whole matter--to tell of the large plans that our great rival undoubtedly had in view, plans which meant ultimately the consolidation of the entire business in some great corporation under his control. It was as clear to me as handwriting what he was aiming for--the entire food-products business of the country; and it would take a stronger man than Henry I. Dround to stand against him.
"So, Mrs. Dround," I concluded, "the best thing you and I can do for Mr.
Dround is to advise him to retire, to sell out--"
"He would never do that," she interrupted me quietly.
"You must make him see it," I urged.
"There are some things I cannot do. You will not understand; I cannot tell you--it is not my right. Only he will go on to the bitter end."
I bowed. There was nothing further to be said, and we sat silently for a few minutes.
"But are you sure," she began again, "that that would be the best way?
Is it best to run to your enemy, crying for quarter?"
"Not if you can put up a good fight!"
She drew her fingers caressingly over the outlines of the old marble.
"I think you could put up the right kind of a fight," she remarked quietly. "Suppose that you saw your way clear to go in--to fight--what would you do?"
"The first thing," I said, smiling, "would be to hit Strauss between the eyes."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I think you could put up the right kind of a fight," she remarked quietly.]
"Just how?"
"Do what he is doing, if I could: get together all the independent concerns that could be bought or persuaded into joining. Then you would be in a position to make terms with the railroads and force agreements from the big fellows. And I shouldn"t let my scruples stand in the way, either," I added hardily.
"Naturally not--if the others were the same kind!"
"And if your husband were made like you," I thought to myself, "the chance would be worth the trying." "If," I continued aloud, "you could get the Jevons Brothers, the E.H. Harris Company, Griscom, in Omaha, and two or three others, there would be a beginning. And there is this London and Chicago concern, which could be had cheap," I mused half to myself, remembering Carmichael"s words.
"I was sure you knew what must be done," she took me up in the same cool, a.s.sured tone. "You aren"t the man to follow in the traces. You are the kind that leads, that builds. And this is building! What is the first step?"
I looked at her, but this time I did not laugh. She had risen from the stone bench and stood gazing out across the quiet sward to the blue lake beyond. Her dark features were alight with enthusiasm. Then she looked over at me inquiringly, expecting me to take her lead, to walk on boldly with her.
And there of a sudden--for until that moment there was nothing in my mind but to tell Mr. Dround that I was to leave him--there shot into my head a plan of how this thing might be handled, the sketch of a great campaign. All the seeds of thought, the full years" schemings, the knowledge and experience of life I had been getting--everything that was within me came surging up into one grand purpose. How it came to me of a sudden, born of a few words this woman had spoken here in the garden by the blue lake, is beyond my explanation. Suddenly I saw a way, clear and broad ahead--the way for me to travel.
"You will have to take the first steps by yourself--manage this London and Chicago Company affair on your own responsibility." Mrs. Dround"s voice was now matter-of-fact, as though the time for clear thinking had come. "Then, when you have your plans ready--know just what must be done--you will have the necessary help. I can promise that!"
I understood what she meant--that Mr. Dround was not to be approached until the scheme was ripe. Then she would swing him to a decision. That was the wise way.
"You are right," I agreed. "It would be useless to trouble him until the land is mapped. When it comes to forming the company--"
"Yes, then," she interrupted, seeing my point. "Then I shall be of use."
"My,--but it"s a big gamble!" I said low to myself.
"That is the only kind worth making!" she flashed.
It struck the right note in my heart. She held out her hand, and I took it in mine.
"We"re partners on this thing!" I smiled.
"Yes--to the end. Now, shall we go to Mr. Dround?"
Here was a woman who should have headed a regiment, or run a railroad, or sat at a game with a large stake!
Mr. Dround opened the door on the veranda and came forward, walking feebly.
"How do you do, Harrington?" He greeted me, giving me a thin, feverish hand. "The doctor"s been gone a good while, Jane," he added querulously.
"I have been waiting for you in the library."
Mrs. Dround moved away while we discussed some matters of urgency, and then Mr. Dround said hesitantly: "I hope you see your way clear, Harrington, to accepting my offer. It promises a great future for a man as young as you, with your energy," he added a trifle pompously.
"It is pretty late to talk of that to-night," I replied, evasively.
Mrs. Dround was walking slowly toward us; she stopped by the marble piece in the wall and seemed to be examining it. But I knew that she was listening.
"There are some plans I want to talk over with you first. If they prove satisfactory to you, we could make an arrangement, perhaps."
Mrs. Dround turned her head and looked at us inquiringly.
"Oh, very well; I expect to be at the office to-morrow. This Commission for the Exposition takes a great deal of my time and energy just now."
(It was the year before the great Fair, and Mr. Dround was one of the Commissioners for that enterprise.) "But we will take up your plans at once," he concluded graciously, giving me his hand.