“Fratten!” Lorne looked round him with momentary hesitation, then straightened his back.
“Yes, put him through, put him through, my lad, what?” he exclaimed.
There was a moment’s silence as Sir Hunter held the receiver to his ear, then:
“Hullo, Garth, good-morning; good-morning, my dear fellow; good of you to ring me up. What? This morning? By all means, come when you like; come now.” (His eyes wandered defiantly from face to face.) “Yes, of course—delighted to see you, my dear fellow; delighted.”
He replaced the receiver and returned the telephone to its stand on the wall behind his chair.
“Sir Garth’s coming round now,” he said. “Going to look into our doings. Naturally a man in his position can’t commit himself without investigation.” He cleared his throat nervously. “Naturally he can’t, what?”
Lessingham turned towards the manager.
“I’ll ask you to withdraw, please, Mr. Blagge,” he said. The manager gathered up his papers and left the room.
“Now, Chairman,” said Lessingham, speaking quietly but decisively, “this matter’s got to be settled here and now—you’ve invited Fratten to come round here and to join the Board without consulting your fellow-directors. You’ve got the whip hand of us in the matter of votes—you can put him on if you like. But if you put him on, I go off—that’s final. I don’t expect you to settle that in one minute, but you’d better have your mind made up before Fratten gets here. I’m going now; you can let me know what you’ve decided. Only understand, what I’ve said is final.”
He rose and, without another glance at either of his colleagues, walked out the room. Sir Hunter’s face was a dark red; he was deeply offended—and at the same time, seriously alarmed; he knew well enough where the brains of the company lay; Wraile was clear-headed and intelligent, but comparatively an amateur like himself; Lessingham was a financier. At the same time he could not allow himself to knuckle under to a fellow of that type; he could not throw over Fratten; it would be a gross insult to the distinguished banker after asking him to join the Board. Lorne realized that he had acted hastily, perhaps unwisely—but he had gone too far to retire—only a really great general can bring himself to retire.