THE CHARM OF THE OLD WORLD ROMANCES – Premium 10 Book Collection. Robert Barr

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СКАЧАТЬ about the man, he would probably have said his offensive familiarity. Fleming seemed to think himself a genial good fellow, and he was immensely popular with a certain class in the smoking-room. He was lavishly free with his invitations to drink, and always had a case of good cigars in his pocket, which he bestowed with great liberality. He had the habit of slapping a man boisterously on the back, and saying, 'Well, old fellow, how are you? How's things?' He usually confided to his listeners that he was a self-made man: had landed at New York without a cent in his pocket, and look at him now!

      Wentworth was icy towards this man; but frigidity had no effect whatever on the exuberant spirits of the New York politician.

      'Well, old man!' cried Fleming to Wentworth, as he came up to the latter and linked arms affectionately. 'What lovely weather we are having for winter time!'

      'It is good,' said Wentworth.

      'Good? It's glorious! Who would have thought, when leaving New York in a snowstorm as we did, that we would run right into the heart of spring? I hope you are enjoying your voyage?'

      'I am.'

      'You ought to. By the way, why are you so awful stand-offish? Is it natural, or merely put on "for this occasion only"?'

      'I do not know what you mean by "stand-offish."'

      'You know very well what I mean. Why do you pretend to be so stiff and formal with a fellow?'

      'I am never stiff and formal with anyone unless I do not desire his acquaintance.'

      Fleming laughed loudly.

      'I suppose that's a personal hint. Well, it seems to me, if this exclusiveness is genuine, that you would be more afraid of newspaper notoriety than of anything else.'

      'Why do you say that?'

      'Because I can't, for the life of me, see why you spend so much time with Dolly Dimple. I am sure I don't know why she is here; but I do know this: that you will be served up to the extent of two or three columns in the Sunday Argus as sure as you live.'

      'I don't understand you.'

      'You don't? Why, it's plain enough. You spend all your time with her.'

      'I do not even know of whom you are speaking.'

      'Oh, come now, that's too rich! Is it possible you don't know that Miss Jennie Brewster is the one who writes those Sunday articles over the signature of "Dolly Dimple"?'

      A strange fear fell upon Wentworth as his companion mentioned the Argus. He remembered it as J.K. Rivers' paper; but when Fleming said Miss Brewster was a correspondent of the Argus, he was aghast.

      'I—I—I don't think I quite catch your meaning,' he stammered.

      'Well, my meaning's easy enough to see. Hasn't she ever told you? Then it shows she wants to do you up on toast. You're not an English politician, are you? You haven't any political secrets that Dolly wants to get at, have you? Why, she is the greatest girl there is in the whole United States for finding out just what a man doesn't want to have known. You know the Secretary of State'—and here Fleming went on to relate a wonderfully brilliant feat of Dolly's; but the person to whom he was talking had neither eyes nor ears. He heard nothing and he saw nothing.

      'Dear me!' said Fleming, drawing himself up and slapping the other on the back, 'you look perfectly dumfounded. I suppose I oughtn't to have given Dolly away like this; but she has pretended all along that she didn't know me, and so I've got even with her. You take my advice, and anything you don't want to see in print, don't tell Miss Brewster, that's all. Have a cigar?'

      'No, thank you,' replied the other mechanically.

      'Better come in and have a drink.'

      'No, thank you.'

      'Well, so long. I'll see you later.'

      'It can't be true—it can't be true!' Wentworth repeated to himself in deep consternation, but still an inward misgiving warned him that, after all, it might be true. With his hands clasped behind him he walked up and down, trying to collect himself—trying to remember what he had told and what he had not. As he walked along, heeding nobody, a sweet voice from one of the chairs thrilled him, and he paused.

      'Why, Mr. Wentworth, what is the matter with you this morning? You look as if you had seen a ghost.'

      Wentworth glanced at the young woman seated in the chair, who was gazing up brightly at him.

      'Well,' he said at last, 'I am not sure but I have seen a ghost. May I sit down beside you?'

      'May you? Why, of course you may. I shall be delighted to have you. Is there anything wrong?'

      'I don't know. Yes, I think there is.'

      'Well, tell it to me; perhaps I can help you. A woman's wit, you know. What is the trouble?'

      'May I ask you a few questions, Miss Brewster?'

      'Certainly. A thousand of them, if you like, and I will answer them all if I can.'

      'Thank you. Will you tell me, Miss Brewster, if you are connected with any newspaper?'

      Miss Brewster laughed her merry, silvery little laugh.

      'Who told you? Ah! I see how it is. It was that creature Fleming. I'll get even with him for this some day. I know what office he is after, and the next time he wants a good notice from the Argus he'll get it; see if he don't. I know some things about him that he would just as soon not see in print. Why, what a fool the man is! I suppose he told you out of revenge because I wouldn't speak to him the other evening. Never mind; I can afford to wait.'

      'Then—then, Miss Brewster, it is true?'

      'Certainly it is true; is there anything wrong about it? I hope you don't think it is disreputable to belong to a good newspaper?'

      'To a good newspaper, no; to a bad newspaper, yes.'

      'Oh, I don't think the Argus is a bad newspaper. It pays me well.'

      'Then it is to the Argus that you belong?'

      'Certainly.'

      'May I ask, Miss Brewster, if there is anything I have spoken about to you that you intend to use in your paper?'

      Again Miss Brewster laughed.

      'I will be perfectly frank with you. I never tell a lie—it doesn't pay. Yes. The reason I am here is because you are here. I am here to find out what your report on those mines will be, also what the report of your friend will be. I have found out.'

      'And do you intend to use the information you have thus obtained—if I may say it—under false pretences?'

      'My dear sir, you are forgetting yourself. You must remember that you are talking to a lady.'

      'A lady!' cried Wentworth in his anguish.

      'Yes, sir, a lady; and you must be careful how you talk to this lady. There was no false pretence about it, if you remember. What СКАЧАТЬ