"You can get them on the telephone. If they're here to-morrow morning and consent—there ought to be no difficulty about that—you three Directors can sick the lawyers on to me at once and fix up the security deeds in a day or so."
"You ought to have been born an Englishman!" said the baronet admiringly.
"One point occurs to me. Let's keep this matter close until the prospectus is actually launched. I don't want any Stock Exchange 'wreckers!' trying to stick a knife into my back. You know some of their tricks?"
"Certainly—certainly!"
"I don't think I'd even mention it to your daughter. Women—even the best of them—can't help talking."
"Women are not meant for business," agreed the baronet sententiously.
CHAPTER XXXIII
LARSSEN'S APPEAL
In pursuance of his second move, Larssen had to see Miss Verney. To write to her would probably be fruitless waste of time; and it was emphatically not the kind of interview to delegate to a subordinate. He had to seek her in person.
It was curious to reflect that, in this tangle of four lives, the balance of power had shifted successively from one to the other. At first it was with Matheson. A letter of his had brought the shipowner hastening to Paris to see him. Later, it was Larssen who sat still and Matheson who hurried to find him. Later again, it was Olive who held decision between the two men. And now Elaine.