“I have a big announcement to make to you, Miss Holland,” he began evenly.
“Indeed?”
“My life work is rapidly reaching its consummation. You like this place?”
He adjusted his glasses and waved his hand comprehensively. The gesture took in the house, the grounds, the yacht, the river and possibly the city.
Virginia started to the apparently irrelevant question. In her surprise she forgot to answer.
“You like it?” he repeated.
“Your place,” she stammered, “why, yes, of course, it’s beautiful, and I think the banquet a triumph of generosity. Our leaders will never cease sounding your praises. I must say that you’re a master politician. I wonder that you became a banker—”
Waldron’s cold smile thawed into something like geniality.
“I had good reasons for that choice, you may rest assured. The man who does things, Miss Holland, leaves nothing to chance which his will may determine. It was not by accident that I became a multi-millionaire. It was necessary—”
He stopped abruptly and fixed her with his steel-gray eyes.