Braithwaite watched his every movement, and when the check had been signed, almost clutched at the slip of paper.
“I am very grateful—and——”
“That’s sufficient. Now you can go,” Gaunt intervened, and gave him a curt nod of dismissal.
Braithwaite slouched away, and there was a little more color in his pale cheeks, perhaps brought there by shame; perhaps by that feeling of exultation which the sudden acquirement of money gives to the needy.
Gaunt fell into a reverie, and his thoughts were with the past. It was a great thing to have succeeded as he had done, when little more than thirty years of age. Everything he touched turned to gold, and now he possessed more than two million pounds; but there was nothing of the miser in his disposition, for it was not the gold that he loved, but the power that it represented, and it was ambition that directed his every step—save one. It was true that marriage with the woman he had chosen, Lady Mildred Blythe, would increase his social prestige, but it was not for that reason that he was about to offer her his hand and a share of his wealth. During his early years—that grim time spent on the Congo—he had not spoken to a white woman, the amassing of wealth had kept him too busy to think of love.
A month ago he would have laughed to scorn the idea of such a marriage and now he knew that everything else counted as naught, when weighed with his love for Lady Mildred. Even now he could picture her unerringly, with her beauty that moved him so strangely. And yet he realized that if she but knew what an inferno of passion she had aroused, her answer would be the refusal of his suit.
But there was no nervousness on his face when he was shown into the room where she awaited him. Lady Mildred did not rise from the chair, but gave him her hand and looked at him frankly.
“What news, Mr. Gaunt? How is that investment of mine?” she asked gaily.
But he could see the anxiety in her eyes. The woman he loved was poor, with that gnawing poverty of one who must keep up appearances.
“The shares have gone up fifteen shillings,” he answered quietly.