“I told you I have not forgiven him for his selfish ingratitude to you; but, well—I shall probably end by doing whatever you want me to do. Perhaps that was not very generously said. We have gotten away from the land; you are satisfied with the offer, you think you will accept it?”
“You advise me to; do you not?”
He did not answer her directly, but took up his hat from the chair where he had placed it when he entered the room.
“To-morrow, perhaps, I shall bring the deed for you to look over and sign,” he said, as he made ready to take his leave of her.
“But who wishes to buy the land?” asked Virginia.
“Page Stark,” said Benson, turning back into the room. “You probably know that he has always dabbled in cheap lands.”
Page Stark was the old banker's son, a reserved and silent fellow; and Benson had arranged with him to act for him in the purchase of the land. There was no one else whom he could so fully trust to hold his tongue.
“I can't go on with this,” he told himself as he quitted the house, and for the moment he felt that he must abandon the whole project. But when he reached his office he found a telegram on his desk. It was from Southerland, reminding him of the promise he had made that he would be back in Wheeling by the first of the week. It was now Saturday. This moved Benson to a furious anger; he tore up the telegram with swift nervous jerks, and tossed the scraps into his waste-paper basket. “Damn the fool, why does he bother me!” he cried. “Does he suppose I have nothing else to think of! He'll be surprised when I write him that the deal's off.”
But did he dare write Southerland this?
On Monday came another telegram; the Wheeling man was evidently growing restive under the delay. This second telegram threw Benson into something of a panic. Suppose Southerland should come to see Virginia! He had not thought of the possibility of this before, and he realized in spite of the spacious promises he had made himself, that the transaction would have to be brought to a conclusion of some sort; for clearly Southerland was not a man whom it would be safe to ignore.