Both men had strong incentives for hastening the affair; and within a fortnight after Moffatt's first advance Ralph was able to tell him that his offer was accepted. Over and above his personal satisfaction he felt the thrill of the agent whom some powerful negotiator has charged with a delicate mission: he might have been an eager young Jesuit carrying compromising papers to his superior. It had been stimulating to work with Moffatt, and to study at close range the large powerful instrument of his intelligence.
As he came out of Moffatt's office at the conclusion of this visit Ralph met Mr. Spragg descending from his eyrie. He stopped short with a backward glance at Moffatt's door.
"Hallo—what were you doing in there with those cut-throats?"
Ralph judged discretion to be essential. "Oh, just a little business for the firm."
Mr. Spragg said no more, but resorted to the soothing labial motion of revolving his phantom toothpick.
"How's Undie getting along?" he merely asked, as he and his son-in-law descended together in the elevator.
"She doesn't seem to feel much stronger. The doctor wants her to run over to Europe for a few weeks. She thinks of joining her friends the Shallums in Paris."
Mr. Spragg was again silent, but he left the building at Ralph's side, and the two walked along together toward Wall Street.
Presently the older man asked: "How did you get acquainted with
Moffatt?"
"Why, by chance—Undine ran across him somewhere and asked him to dine the other night."