“Yes. At least he was my employer. He is to be my partner.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him now with languid curiosity.
“Is that not rather a sudden rise in the world?” she asked carelessly.
“It is very sudden,” he answered. “It is the miracle crane. Mr. Dobell has had it patented, and we have been offered one hundred thousand pounds for the American rights alone. Mr. Dobell says that there is a great fortune in it.”
She looked at him with wide-open eyes, eyes full of an expression which baffled him, which, if he had been a wiser man and more versed in woman’s ways, should also have been a warning to him.
“I congratulate you,” she said quietly. “You are wonderfully fortunate to become rich so suddenly, at your age.”
Her tone was altogether emotionless, her lack of enthusiasm too obvious to be ignored. He was puzzled. He became nervous.
“You know that it isn’t the money I care about,” he said. “You yourself have always admitted that to be a power in the world wealth is a necessity. I only care for money for what it may bring me. You once said that the millionaire is all-powerful.”
“Did I?” she answered. “That, of course, was an exaggeration.”
He rose suddenly to his feet, a flush in his cheeks, his tone husky. He stood over her, his hand on the back of her seat, his eyes seeking to penetrate the graceful nonchalance of her tone and manner.