“Exactly! And I’ll send Alex. up to his wife to put her on guard about giving things away to strangers—her usual failing,” added Mr. Dalken.
Then before another word was said, Jack hurried away, and the two men hastened to the smoking-room to tell their third partner to go find his wife, and impress upon her the necessity of keeping mum about the actions and business meetings of her husband and his partners.
Mr. Alexander smiled cynically as he listened to his friends’ advice; then he replied: “Like-es not, Maggie’ll fly off the handle and shout all she knows from the housetops, just to badger me into agreein’ to let that perky dude marry Dodo!”
“Oh, good gracious!” exclaimed Mr. Dalken. “The whole continent of South America isn’t worth that dreadful mistake.”
“Don’t you worry, friends,” explained the little man, smiling as an idea entered his tremendous brain. “I’ll fix things so’s Maggie will be feeding out of my hand for a few days, and by that time there won’t be no risks of losin’ that property.”
As it was none of Mr. Dalken’s business what his friend said or did in his private family circle, he did not ask Mr. Alexander how he planned to keep his wife from publishing the news of her husband’s close association with a man who added prestige to her social position. As this news would tell others that three financiers were affiliated in a way that might bode ill to competitive financiers, it would be as well to suppress the publisher before she could broadcast her tidings.
Mr. Alexander hurried away to reach his wife’s room before she could confide in the chambermaid, or come down to the lounge to see if she might find any one of importance to whom she might introduce herself, as was her usual custom when left alone.
In the sanctity (?) of their private room, Mr. Alexander began to approach his subject in a round-about manner.
“Well, Marguerite, glad to see you lookin’ so good. This bracin’ air sure does agree with your complexion and tone. A few more weeks of the same tonic will take twenty years more off your face.”
Mrs. Alexander had just been examining her face and color in the mirror, and she felt worried over a small wrinkle which she thought she detected at the corner of her eyes. In spite of all the wrinkle plasters she used nightly, this fine line crept in unawares, it seems. But her husband’s surprising compliment—so unusual from him—pleased her mightily.