“She has many roles,” said Montague.
“Is it really true,” asked the other, “that she paid fifty thousand dollars for a bath-tub?”
“She says she did,” he answered. “The newspapers say it, too, so I suppose it is true. I know Duval told me with his own lips that she cost him a million dollars a year; but then that may have been because he was angry.”
“Is he so rich as all that?” asked Lucy.
“I don't know how rich he is personally,” said Montague. “I know he is one of the most powerful men in New York. They call him the 'System's' banker.”
“I have heard Mr. Ryder speak of him,” said she.
“Not very favourably, I imagine,” said he, with a smile.
“No,” said she, “they had some kind of a quarrel. What was the matter?”
“I don't know anything about it,” was the answer. “But Ryder is a free lance, and a new man, and Duval works with the big men who don't like to have trespassers about.”
Lucy was silent for a minute; her brows were knit in thought. “Is it really true that Mr. Ryder's position is so unstable? I thought the Gotham Trust Company was one of the largest institutions in the country. What are those huge figures that you see in their advertisements,—seventy millions—eighty millions—what is it?”