There remained but two things for the happy groom to do now.
The one was to have a last interview with Justine, who was now reduced to a calm subserviency to the orders of the young “Private Secretary,” and the other to effect a safe deposit in some satisfactory place of the stolen document and its tell-tale copy.
He had decided to be liberal with Justine in money matters, and to entrust her in his three months’ absence with the watching of Helms, the janitor, and the disgruntled German doctor.
A famous plan suggested itself! Justine should feed out to these men money, in his name, during his absence.
“And that, with the hope of more, will keep them true to me, as rascals go, till I return.” He had once decided to dismantle the secret connections with Mrs. Willoughby’s telegraph and telephone. It was the subject of a long, introspective reverie.
But reflection had told him of a possible mistake. And perhaps in his absence, Justine might glean from the detained correspondence delivered at the “Circassia,” some facts to guide both Senator Garston and himself. Yes, the “underground railroad” should not be disturbed. Its existence was as yet concealed from all his enemies.
The use in the next winter of the “Elmleaf” rooms for a concealed headquarters of speculation caused him to leave the wires in position. “It might excite these people’s suspicions. I must appear to trust them,” he decided, “and Garston may even make a million over the private tips I can give him if I am up to their game.”
Suddenly it occurred to him that his own marriage might change the situation, and yet, there were Elaine Willoughby’s recent orders.
“She means probably to hide her child, and then come back and be Queen of the Street again,” he smiled. “The ruling passion. She has the speculative mania still.” For it was clear to him now that the presence of mother and daughter together in New York City was an unnecessary risk.
And so, even on the threshold of his marriage Harold Vreeland feared to trust his bride with the secret of the stolen document. They were to live at the Hotel Savoy on their return, “so as to be near Uncle James, at the Plaza.”