Zoe held her breath. Alden moved his cheroot from the left corner of his mouth to the right. Mr. Oppner wrinkled up his eyes and scrutinised the speaker with a blank astonishment.
"I hold no brief for Séverac Bablon," continued the fascinating voice.
"Nope?" drawled Oppner.
"His deeds must speak for themselves. But on behalf of an important financial group I have a proposition to make."
Mr. Oppner took a step forward.
"What group's that?"
"Shall I say, simply, the most influential in Europe?"
"The Elschilds?"
"If you consider them to be so, you may construe my words in that way."
"Mr. Antony Elschild has been pulling my leg with some fool proposition about whitewashing the millionaire, or something to that effect. It's always seemed to me he's got more money than sense. He's passed out a cheque to this Gleaner fund big enough to build a soap factory!"