'By all means,' Margaret answered readily, and their eyes met; but she drew back her hand again before taking his. 'This is purely a matter of business between us,' she said, 'you understand that? It means nothing else?'
'Purely a matter of business,' answered Rufus Van Torp, slowly and gravely. [{322}]
CHAPTER XII
'Stemp,' said Mr. Van Torp, 'we must have something to eat on that yacht.'
'Yes, sir. Quite so, sir.'
Stemp, who could do anything, was clipping the millionaire's thatch of sandy hair, on the morning after the transaction last described. Mr. Van Torp abhorred barbers and shaved himself, and in his less 'prominent' days he had been in the habit of cutting his own hair by using two looking-glasses. The result had rarely been artistic, and even Stemp was not what is described on some American signs as a tonsorial artist, but he managed to clip his master's rough mane with neatness and precision, if not in the 'Bond Street style.'
'I mean,' said Mr. Van Torp, explaining himself, 'we must have something good to eat.'
'Oh, I see, sir,' answered Stemp, as if this were quite a new idea.
'Well, now, do you suppose you can get anything to eat in Italy?'
'Salmon-trout is very good there, sir, and quails are in season at the end of August. They are just going back to Egypt at this time of the year, sir, and are very fat. There's Gorgonzola cheese, too, and figs and muscatel grapes are coming on. I think that's all, sir.'