"You seem exhausted, Mr. Weldon," he said quietly.
"I--I have missed my sleep lately," Weldon stammered, trying to control the motions of his mouth, his voice striking his own ear as mechanical, far away, laboured.
"Exactly," said Webb suavely. "And now, Mr. Weldon, _how much do you expect for those papers_?"
Weldon drew his chair across the broad verandah in an aimless, leisurely way, anch.o.r.ed it in the shadow of a wicker table laden with cool gla.s.s pitchers and iced fruits, and sank into it, sighing restlessly. The pillars of coral that supported the verandah roof framed, each pair of them, an oblong of sapphire bay; vivid ma.s.ses of pink oleanders hedged the foreground; the tremulous sapphire crawled softly over a creamy crescent beach. In the pleasant noon stillness the mild whine of a patient puppy, broken by the chuckles of some young human thing, rose on the air. Jars of sweet flowers sent out their almost tropical odours with each tiny, invisible wind current: they seemed to puff it into his face.
A great green and flame-coloured parrot, hung head downward in his yellow cage, began suddenly a mechanical, dry litany:
"_Manana! manana! manana!_" It was like a clock--pa.s.sionless, regular, meditative. Weldon shrugged his shoulders distastefully; he had never been able to conquer his dislike of steady, measured sounds. It was an unreasonable weakness, but incurable. He twisted uneasily in his white flannels as the bird droned on,
"_Manana! manana! manana!_"
"Be still, Chico, be still, sir!"
A fair, finely grown boy took the coral steps two at a bound and threatened the parrot.
"Daddy, keep him quiet, won"t you? He frightens my white mice awfully.
Why do mice hate parrots? Do you know, daddy?"
Weldon"s face cleared and he threw his arm over the slender shoulders.
"I don"t know, Pippo, I can"t guess," he said. "Where"s your mother?"
"Just beyond you," and the boy slipped away to his pets, grudging the time for her kiss in pa.s.sing.
She stood softly behind the wicker chair and laid her hand on his forehead. Her lips were only a little smoother.
"Still troubled, dearest?" she asked him in her pleasant voice. "Still dreaming?"
She was very dark, with reddish lights in her thick, low-growing hair, and brown, broad eyebrows. Under them her eyes shone, a frank, dark brown; she bore a curious likeness to that nurse he had seen in the doctor"s office, so many years ago. How strange that a pa.s.sing fate should have set his ideal of dear and loving women forever! She had even the same small dimple at the left of her mouth.
She slipped to the floor beside him and laid her head in her wifely way against his knee.
"I"m so sorry it bothers you, Phil," she murmured, her cheek against his hand. "One would think you were a superst.i.tious boy, you silly!
Hear baby--he"s playing so dearly with those puppies! He pats them and then pinches their tails so slyly! Oh, Ted! Oh, baby! Call to mummy!"
From the balcony above a shrill crow drowned the complaint of the puppies.
"Doesn"t he say it plainly!" she cried, flushing a beautiful mother-rose. "And he is so strong, Phil!"
He caressed her absently. Ten years gone, and a dream had swept those years to one side as one would draw a bronze curtain, had opened the past as one would open a heavy mahogany door! All night a tall, carved clock had ticked, ticked through his dreams, _one, two! one, two! one, two!_ A sinister, sandy face had mocked and probed him, a fat, animal face had irritated him, a pale, haunted face had pleaded with him. He had tossed himself awake, had listened thankfully to the soft breathing beside him, had kissed the fragrant braid across his face, and sunk again into heavy, sultry nightmare, doomed to live that shameful day through every clock-tick. And now his brain was cloudy with it. His hand lay listless on her shoulder.
A five-year-old girl, lovely as a tea rose, stood doubtfully in the cedar-wood door, poised for flight either way, sucking in the dimple at the left of her mouth. Running at his call she flew into his arms and dropped her b.u.t.tercup head on his shoulder. For the first time he smiled, and the wise wife slipped quietly away and watched them from the door, guessing at their murmurs, counting their kisses. Later she disturbed them reluctantly.
"I want to say you are not at home," she said, "but I daren"t quite do that, for he is from the States, dear, and it is important business.
His name," dropping her eyes to the white rectangle in her hand, "is Webb. Shall I send him out here?"
Weldon put the child down from his knees and half rose.
"Yes," he said, clearing his throat, "send him out here. And keep the children away."
So this was it. It had not been for nothing, that dream.
The tall, lank figure was before him, the ironical smile drooped on the tight lips. Ten years had left him as they found him, but for a thought of grey in the sandy hair.
"Sit down," said Weldon briefly, "what is it?"
"You"ve put on a little weight, I see," said Webb, nodding at the proffered chair, "but that"s only proper in the president of a bank, I suppose. You"ve done well, Mr. Weldon."
Weldon bowed.
"You did not come to Bermuda to tell me this, Mr. Webb, I think?"
"No," said Webb, "I didn"t. Ten years ago, Mr. Weldon, you called me a mind-reader when I had put two and two together once or twice, put myself in your place for ten minutes, complimented you by a.s.suming that your course had been what mine would have been, and spoken to you accordingly. Can"t you do a little mind-reading on your own account, now?"
"I confess myself unequal to it," Weldon said coldly.
Webb nodded indulgently.
"All right," he returned, "we"ll take it that way, if you want to. Mr.
Weldon, I don"t know if you read our papers down here at all?"
"I have never opened an American newspaper since I left the country,"
said Weldon briefly.
"I see. I suppose you know that Blickenstern"s dying, though?"
"Yes," Weldon answered indifferently, "we all know that, of course."
"Yes. Well, Mr. Weldon, I"m supposed to inherit his shoes. It"s not much to you, of course, but a lot to me--and to a lot of other people, too. Now for something you don"t know. In just about five days, Mr.
Weldon, we"re going to break through the crust and drop into the biggest panic since "93. That and Blickenstern"s death--he must go soon, now--and this fearful railroad business--I won"t bore you--will put me into a bad hole. A worse hole, I don"t mind telling you, Mr.
Weldon, than Blick"s successor can afford to get into. It"s all a matter of balance now; pretty fine balancing, too, for the next week.
In six weeks there"ll be enough for most of us, but just now--well, there"ll be dozens of us in the Street who"ll be grateful for ten thousand in cash around the corner. Think of it--ten thousand! Now I"ll be short. I need some money--not stage money, Mr. Weldon, real money! I wouldn"t take Blick"s name on paper for what I want this week--and getting it or not getting it means the top of the heap for me, or three years" fight for it. I can"t afford three years. I wasn"t a bank president at forty, you know."
"You mean you want the ten thousand pounds you gave me?"
"Just so. I want fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Weldon--for six weeks. I hate to do it, honestly. Nothing but this infernal panic could have driven me to this. But I"m helpless. And it"s worth millions to me to have no one suspect it. I can"t touch a penny elsewhere--it"s all tied up. I must be able to produce it without any fuss, or disturbing the jack-straws a particle. There"s no use in going into the details."
"No use at all," said Weldon stiffly, "for it will be impossible for me to lend you such a sum, Mr. Webb, impossible. I have paid well for my position here."
"And a good move, too," said the other heartily. "You stand well, Weldon; none better."
"I have never been what you would call ambitious," Weldon went on, more pa.s.sionately, now. "When you yourself asked me why I demanded no more than the ten--the fifty thousand, you remember my answer. I knew that it would buy me a good, respectable interest out here, a.s.sure me of a position I had every capacity to sustain honourably and efficiently, and give me the leisure and climate that I wanted. I shall never be a rich man--by your standards. I don"t care. I thought my brains and initiative were worth what I asked, and you agreed with me. I promised utter silence and have kept my word. You promised the same and have broken yours. I can do nothing for you, even if I wished to. I"d rather not discuss it further."
"_Manana! manana! manana!_" the parrot shrilled. It still hung head down in the shining cage. Weldon could have wrung its neck. It was worse than a clock. Webb sighed regretfully and raised his heavy lids.