"Well, go and drink his champagne. Always get whatever you can. And then tell him that you'll see him——"
"I certainly will, sir, if you advise it. And then?"
"And then—leave it to me. And—young man—I think I heard, a year or two ago, something about you and my girl Rosie."
"There was something, sir. Not enough to trouble you about it."
"She told me. Rosie tells me all her love affairs."
"Is she—is she unmarried?"
"Oh yes, and for the moment I believe she is free. She has had one or two engagements, but, somehow, they have come to nothing. There was the French Count, but that was knocked on the head very early in consequence of things discovered. And there was the Boom in Guano, but he fortunately smashed, much to Rosie's joy, because she never liked him. The last was Lord Evergreen. He was a nice old chap when you could understand what he said, and Rosie would have liked the title very much, though his grandchildren opposed the thing. Well, sir, I suppose you couldn't understand the trouble we took to keep that old man alive for his own wedding. Science did all it could, but 'twas of no use——" The financier sighed. "The ways of Providence are inscrutable. He died, sir, the day before."
"That was very sad."
"A dashing of the cup from the lip, sir. My daughter would have been a Countess. Well, young gentleman, about this estate of yours. I think I see a way—I think, I am not yet sure—that I do see a way. Go now. See this liberal gentleman, and drink his champagne. And come here in a week. Then, if I still see my way, you shall understand what it means to hold the position in the City which is mine."
"And—and—may I call upon Rosie?"