“Something like that,” said Montague.
“And is not that true?” she asked.
“Yes, I guess that's true,” he said. “I don't know anything about Ryder's affairs, you know—I simply hear the gossip. Everyone says he is playing a bold game. You take my advice, and keep your money somewhere else. You have to be doubly careful because you have enemies.”
“Enemies?” asked Lucy, in perplexity.
“Have you forgotten what Waterman said to you?” Montague asked.
“You don't mean to tell me,” cried she, “that you think that Waterman would interfere with Mr. Ryder on my account.”
“It sounds incredible, I know,” said Montague, “but such things have happened before this. If anyone knew the inside stories of the battles that have shaken Wall Street, he would find that many of them had some such beginning.”
Montague said this casually, and with nothing in particular in mind. He was not watching his friend closely, and he did not see the effect which his words had produced upon her. He led the conversation into other channels; and he had entirely forgotten the matter the next day, when he received a telephone call from Lucy.
It had been a week since he had written to Smith and Hanson, the lawyers, in regard to the sale of her stock. “Allan,” she asked, “no letter from those people yet?”
“Nothing at all,” he answered.