And as Brauer drifted down the hall Starratt called out, suddenly:
"I say, Brauer, don't put that check through the bank until day after to-morrow, will you?"
Brauer nodded a swift acquiescence and disappeared into a waiting elevator.
Fred retreated to his desk. "Well," he said to Helen, as he let out a deep sigh, "that's what I call easy!"
She looked up from her work. "Almost too easy," she answered. He made no reply and presently she said: "You didn't tell me how tightly you let him sew us up. With signed notes and that agreement he could have been nasty… It's strange he didn't wait a day or two and then claim half of the Hilmer commissions… I wonder why he was in such a rush?"
Fred shrugged. Helen's shrewdness annoyed him.
That evening just as Helen and he were getting ready to leave, a messenger from the Broker's Exchange handed him a note. He broke the seal and read a summons to appear before the executive committee on the following morning. His face must have betrayed him, for Helen halted the adjustment of her veil as she inquired:
"What's wrong? Any trouble?"
He recovered himself swiftly. "Oh no … just a meeting at the
Exchange to-morrow."
But as he folded up the letter and slipped it into his coat pocket he began to have a suspicion as to the reason for Brauer's haste.