I was more puzzled than ever, but I answered as best I could.
“A very little,” I replied. “I used to know a good deal about them once, and, of late, since I have been in the Denboro bank, my knowledge has been brushed up a bit. But I am afraid it is pretty fragmentary.”
“Do you know anything about Louisville and Transcontinental?”
I started. Louisville and Transcontinental was the one stock about which I did know something. Of late I had read everything the papers printed concerning it. It was the stock in which George Taylor had risked so much and which had come so near to ruining him. No wonder I was startled. Why did she mention that particular stock?
“What?” I stammered.
“Louisville and Transcontinental,” she repeated, eagerly. “DO you know anything about it? Why do you look at me like that?”
I must be careful. It was not possible that she could have learned George's secret. No one knew that except George himself, and his brokers, and I. Yet—yet why did she ask that question? I must be on my guard.
“I did not realize that I was looking at you in any extraordinary way, Miss Colton,” I answered.
“But you were. Why? Do you know anything about it? If you do—oh, if you do you may be able to help me, to advise me! And, for Father's sake, I want advice so much.”
For her father's sake! That did not sound as if her question concerned George or me. A trifle reassured, I tried to remember something of what I had read.