“Shall we read another psalm, my dear? Or are you tired?”
She repressed the little shiver that ran through her before she answered wearily. “I am a little tired. If you don’t mind I would like to retire, please.”
He saw her as far as the door of her apartments and left her with her maid after he had kissed the cold cheek she dutifully turned toward him.
CHAPTER X.
HARLEY MAKES A PROPOSITION
Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in having that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously promised the latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some applications for leases when Smythe came into the room with a letter.
“Messenger-boy brought it; said it was important,” he explained.
Ridgway ripped open the envelope, read through the letter swiftly, and tossed it to Eaton. His eyes had grown hard and narrow.
“Write to Mr. Hobart that I am sorry I haven’t time to call on Mr. Harley at the Consolidated offices, as he suggests. Add that I expect to be in my offices all morning, and shall be glad to make an appointment to talk with Mr. Harley here, if he thinks he has any business with me that needs a personal interview.”
Smythe’s leathery face had as much expression as a blank wall, but Eaton gasped. The unparalleled audacity of flinging the billionaire’s overture back in his face left him for the moment speechless. He knew that Ridgway had tempted Providence a hundred times without coming to disaster, but surely this was going too far. Any reasonable compromise with the great trust builder would be cause for felicitation. He had confidence in his chief to any point in reason, but he could not blind himself to the fact that the wonderful successes he had gained were provisional rather than final. He likened them to Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah raid, very successful in irritating, disorganizing and startling the enemy, but with no serious bearing on the final inevitable result. In the end Harley would crush his foes if he set in motion the whole machinery of his limitless resources. That was Eaton’s private opinion, and he was very much of the feeling that this was an opportune time to get in out of the rain.
“Don’t you think we had better consider that answer before we send it, Waring?” he suggested in a low voice.