An occupation for his morning hours suggested itself. He would visit Miss Joanna Marble, and so, at eleven o’clock, he was seated in her “Bureau,” curiously awaiting the arrival of the young woman who was to fill the lofty position of “private secretary” to the “star” of the Elmleaf. Leaning out of the window, he beckoned to one of a shouting mob of newsboys as the words “Extra! extra! Failures in Wall Street!” resounded high above the din of Herald Square.
Tossing the lad a half dollar, he unfolded the still damp sheet. Among the glaring headlines, he read, “Failure of Hathorn & Wolfe. Liabilities, one million dollars.”
He sank back in his chair, and then, seized with a sudden impulse, he quickly ran downstairs and jumped into a coupé, bidding the agent detain the expected beauty.
Some indefinable impulse led him to his rooms, where the grave Bagley handed him a telegraphic dispatch. He tore it open and read the bitter lines: “You have lied and basely betrayed me. I have left America forever. I leave it to the future to punish you.” The signature, “Red Rose,” was that of a woman who was sobbing alone in her stateroom on the Etruria, as she glided past the Narrows on this sunny Saturday morning.
With a clouded brow, Vreeland descended the stair and at the street door, met Mr. Jimmy Potter, who whispered: “Fred Hathorn has cleared out to Havana—last night—the fool. He gouged his wife out of half a million.
“I saw her off on the Etruria to-day, and I’m going to save what I can for her out of the wreck, and, then go over and meet her in Paris.
“I told you that all things would come round to the man who waits.”
With a smothered oath, Vreeland pushed on, glad to escape the easy-going tormentor who was destined to be the prochain ami of the daring Lady of the Red Rose.
He dashed away to Miss Marble’s “Bureau,” where his eyes gleamed as Miss Joanna led him into her private room. Her warning glance gave him the key to his conduct.
And he was speechless in silent rapture, as he gazed upon the fresh and womanly beauty of “Miss Romaine Garland, stenographer.”