Wayne’s heart was beating rapidly. The moment for which he had longed had arrived. He wished to play with it, to delay the complete realization of the joy now within reach.
“Well, I had reason to think afterward that you had bought it yourself. There was one block of a hundred shares that I sold through those Boston brokers who handle that sort of thing, and I noticed afterward that you were credited with that number of additional shares on the office books.”
“You might have spoken to me before selling when it was at my suggestion you went in. It strikes me that your selling in that way was a reflection on my judgment in recommending it. Your conduct was not filial.”
“You can hardly construe it that way. You recommended it in good faith; and I saw no reason for disturbing your confidence in the company simply because I had a hint that the greasers down there hadn’t made the vanilla beans grow.”
“Walsh was perfectly satisfied with it; he went in when I did. In fact, he asked me to let him go in.”
“Yes; I remember,” said Wayne. “Tom went in all right.”
Colonel Craighill moved restlessly in his chair; his anger was mounting; it showed itself in his deepening pallor and in the trembling of his hands and lips. Ordinarily he would not have asked Wayne whether Walsh had sold his shares in the Plantations, but the question now escaped him, and after he had asked it his wrath increased as Wayne smiled a little in replying.
“I’m not very well acquainted with Walsh’s affairs, but it’s my impression that Tom let go, too. The shares took a boost right after we bought, you may remember, and Tom promptly sold out. I’m sorry if it doesn’t look as well as it did,” remarked Wayne, who knew that the engineering company which had been installing an irrigation plant for the Plantations had suspended operations owing to the financial stringency.
“Walsh is under no obligations to me; he was merely a useful clerk in the office; but I don’t understand this withholding of confidence in my own son. I don’t like it. I have been aware for some time that you were not dealing frankly with me, that your life was apart from mine; but this sort of trickery is going too far.”
“I don’t see where the trickery comes in. A lot of your friends were in the thing. They’ve been going down to Mexico in private cars to admire the prospects. I sold out because I wanted to do something else with my money. I didn’t know I had to apologize for selling my shares. It would only have annoyed you if I had told you I was going out. And you speak of my lack of frankness in dealing with you. I suppose you don’t realize that I have been a little less than the office boy here practically since I left school. You’ve never seen fit to take me into your confidence; I’ve been worse than an outsider, and I’ll tell you now that I’ve resented it. You don’t have to tell me that I’ve been a disgrace to your name; I know that. I’m a rotten bad lot; there’s no getting away from it; you can’t say half as mean things of me as I can say of myself. You’ve assumed that I didn’t know that the papers you sent into me from day to day were not of the slightest importance—chaff for the waste-paper basket; but I’ve known it. I’ve known that it was all a good joke, my being here at all. Everybody knows I’ve made a beast of myself getting drunk, but I suppose you thought it naturally followed that I’m a fool, too.”