"I wonder how it would seem, talking to Louise again," says he.
"Might be a little awkward at first," says I, "but----"
"Do you know," he breaks in, "I believe I should like it. If you think she"s good looking now, young man, you should have seen her at 19, at 22, or at 25. What an a.s.s I was! And now I suppose she"s like a full blown rose, perfect, exquisite?"
"Oh, I don"t mean she"s any ravin" beauty," says I, hedgin".
"You don"t, eh?" says he. "Well, I"d just like to see. You may tell her that I will----No, I"ll "phone her myself. Where is she?"
And all the stallin" around I could do didn"t jar him away from that idea. He seems to have forgotten all about this Mabel person who was going to sing. He wanted to call up Louise right away. And he did.
So I don"t have any chesty bulletin to hand Mr. Robert when I gets back.
"Well?" says he. "Did you induce him to give the right answer?"
"Almost," says I. "Had him panicky inside of three minutes."
"And then?" asks Mr. Robert.
"I overdid the act," says I. "Talked too much. He"s coming."
Mr. Robert shrugs his shoulders. "Serves Bruce right," says he. "I wonder, though, how Louise will take it."
For a couple of days she took it hard. Just talking over the "phone with d.i.c.k Harrington left her weak and nervous. Said she couldn"t sleep all that night for thinking what it would be like to meet an ex-hubby that she hadn"t seen for so long. She tried to picture how he would look, and how she would look to him. Then she braced up.
"If I must go through it," she confides to Mrs. Robert, "I mean to look my best."
Isn"t that the female instinct for you?
As a matter of fact I"d kind of thrown it into him a bit strong about what a stunner she was. Oh, kind of nice lookin", fair figure, and traces of a peaches and cream complexion. There was still quite a high voltage sparkle in the trustin" blue eyes and the cheek dimples was still doin" business. But she was carryin" more or less excess weight for her height and there was the beginnings of a double chin. Besides, she always dressed quiet and sort of matronly.
From the remarks I heard Vee make, though, just before the weddin", I judge that Louise intended to go the limit. While she was outfittin"
Polly with the snappiest stuff to be found in the Fifth Avenue shops she picked some for herself. I understand, too, that she was makin" reg"lar trips to a beauty parlor, and all that.
"How foolish!" I says to Vee. "I hope when you get to be forty you won"t try to buy your way back to 25. It simply can"t be done."
"Really?" says Vee, givin" me one of them quizzin" looks.
And, say, that"s my last stab at givin" off the wise stuff about the nose powderin" s.e.x. Pos-itively. For I"ve seen Louise turn the clock back. Uh-huh! I can"t tell how it was done, or go into details of the results, but when she sails into that front pew on the big day, with d.i.c.k Harrington trailin" behind, I takes one glance at her and goes bug-eyed. Was she a stunner? I"ll gurgle so. What had become of that extra 20 pounds I wouldn"t even try to guess. But she"s right there with the svelte figure, the school girly flush, and the sparklin" eyes.
Maybe it was the way the gown was built. Fits like the peel on a banana.
Or the pert way she holds her head, or the general excitement of the occasion. Anyway, mighty few 20-year-old screen favorites would have had anything on her.
As for d.i.c.k Harry--Well, he"s spruced up quite a bit himself, but you"d never mistake him for anything but an old rounder who"s had a clean shave and a face ma.s.sage. And he just can"t seem to see anything but Louise. Even when he has to leave and join the bridal procession his eyes wander back to that front pew where she was waitin". And after it"s all over I sees him watchin" her fascinated while she chatters along lively.
I wasn"t lookin" to get his verdict at all, but later on, as I"m makin"
myself useful at the reception, I runs across him just as he"s slippin"
away.
"I say, young man," says he, grabbin" me by the elbow. "Wasn"t I right about Louise?"
"You had the dope," says I. "Some queen, even if she is near the forty mark."
"And only imagine," he adds, "within a year or so she may be a grandmother!"
"That don"t count these days," says I. "It"s gettin" so you can hardly tell the grandmothers from the vamps."
And when I said that I expect I unloaded my whole stock of wisdom about women.
CHAPTER XII
WHEN THE CURB GOT GYPPED
It was what you might call a session of the big four. Anyway, that"s the way I"d put it; for besides Old Hickory, planted solid in his mahogany swing chair with his face lookin" more"n ever like a two-tone cut of the Rock of Gibraltar, there was Mr. Robert, and Piddie and me. Some aggregation, I"ll say. And it didn"t need any jiggly message from the ouija board to tell that something important in the affairs of the Corrugated Trust might happen within the next few minutes. You could almost feel it in the air. Piddie did. You could see that by the nervous way he was twitchin" his lips.
Course it was natural the big boss should turn first to me. "Torchy," he growls, "shut that door."
And as I steps around to close the only exit from the private office I could watch Piddie"s face turn the color of a piece of cheese. Mr.
Robert looks kind of serious, too.
"Gentlemen," goes on Old Hickory, tossin" the last three inches of a double Corona reckless into a copper bowl, "there"s a leak somewhere in this office."
That gets a m.u.f.fled gasp out of Piddie which puts him under the spotlight at once, and when he finds we"re all lookin" at him he goes through all the motions of a cabaret patron tryin" to sneak past one of Mr. Palmer"s agents with something on the hip. If he"d been caught in the act of borin" into the bond safe he couldn"t have looked any guiltier.
"I--er--I a.s.sure you, Mr. Ellins," he begins spluttery, "that I--ah--I----"
"Bah!" snorts Old Hickory impatient. "Who is implying that you do? If you were under suspicion in the least you wouldn"t have been called in here, Mr. Piddie. So your panic is quite unnecessary."
"Of course," puts in Mr. Robert. "Don"t be absurd, Piddie. Anything new this morning, Governor?"
"Rather," says Old Hickory, pointin" to a Wall Street daily that has broke loose on its front page with a three-column headline. "See what the Curb crowd did to G. L. T. common yesterday? Traded nearly one hundred thousand shares and hammered the opening quotations for a twenty-point loss. All on a rumor of a pa.s.sed dividend. Well, you know that at three o"clock the day before we tabled a motion to pa.s.s that dividend and that an hour later, with a full board present, we decided to pay the regular four per cent semi-annual. But the announcement was not to be made until next Monday. Yet during that hour someone from this office must have carried out news of that first motion. True, it was a false tip; but I propose, gentlemen, to find out where that leak came from."
There"s only one bet I"d be willin" to make on a proposition of that kind. If Old Hickory had set himself to trail down anything he"d do it.
And we"d have to help.
Course, this Great Lakes Transportation is only one of our side lines that we carry on a separate set of books just to please the Attorney General. And compared to other submerged subsidiaries, as Mr. Robert calls "em, it don"t amount to much. But why its outstanding stock should be booted around Broad Street was an interestin" question. Also who the party was that was handin" out advance dope on such confidential details as board meetin" motions--Well, that was more so. Next time it might be a tip on something important. Mr. Robert suggests this.
"There is to be no next time," says Old Hickory, settin" his jaw.
So we starts the drag-net. First we went over the directors who had been present. Only five, includin" Old Hickory and Mr. Robert. And of the other three there was two that it would have been foolish to ask.
Close-mouthed as sea clams after being shipped to Kansas City. The third was Oggie Kendall, a club friend of Mr. Robert"s, who"d been dragged down from luncheon to make up a quorum.
"Oggie might have chattered something through sheer carelessness," says Mr. Robert. "I"ll see if I can get him on the "phone."
He could. But it takes Mr. Robert nearly five minutes to explain to Oggie what he"s being queried about. Finally he gives it up.