‘I entreat your mercy, Craig.’
‘That is well. I am satisfied,’ said Craig.
‘They say that revenge turns to ashes in the mouth. I don’t think it does.’
‘Mr. Craig,’ said Lock suavely to Richard, ‘has given a highly-coloured account of a somewhat ordinary affair. But to appease him I do certainly ask his mercy. I do admit that he has the upper hand.’
‘And I will see you eternally damned, Simon Lock,’ said Raphael Craig, ‘before I grant you an ounce of mercy! There is no mercy for such as you, who are never merciful yourselves. I only wanted to hear you beg, that was all. I hadn’t the slightest intention of letting you off.’
Simon Lock got up.
‘It is as well,’ he said, ‘that this farce should end. In asking your mercy I was only using a form of words in order to pacify you. I recognised that you were suffering, as you yourself have admitted, from a sort of mania, and I took what I thought was the easiest course with you. As to the past, we will not go into that. Your version of it is ridiculously overstated. I shall now leave. In twenty-four hours you will be in prison. You say that the fact of your being in prison will not affect the Princesse contracts. I think it will. I think that when I inform the Stock Exchange Committee that the real mover of those contracts is awaiting his trial as a coiner, the Committee will do something drastic. I might have told you this before, but I wished, if possible, to arrive at an amicable settlement. In offering you two hundred and fifty thousand pounds I fancy I was meeting you more than half-way. Good-day, Mr. Craig; good-day, Mr. Redgrave. And, Mr. Redgrave, have a care how you mix yourself up with this Craig, and, above all, do not take for gospel everything that he says as to my past history.’
Simon Lock made his exit from the room with immense dignity.
‘He is bluffing,’ said Raphael Craig. ‘He is at the end of his tether, and he knows it; but he has bluffed it out very well. The old man smiled happily. ‘You are still prepared to marry Teresa?’ he asked.
Richard took Mr. Craig’s hand.