Men of Affairs. Roland Pertwee
said. "Then here's something to think about.
Suppose Van Diest kidnaps the wrong man." The door slammed behind him.
Mr. Torrington laid a card on the table with careful deliberation. He was smiling.
"Great fun," he murmured to himself.
CHAPTER 4.
SITTING ON THE FLOOR.
When Anthony Barraclough left the Mansions he walked up Park Lane and turned into Green Street. Before a house with a white front door he stopped and attacked the knocker. He was admitted by a parlourmaid and informed that Miss Irish was in the boudoir. This was good news because it meant sitting on the floor and lovers all the world over are at their happiest when they sit on the floor. There is something soothing and familiar about it. A man loves to sprawl and a woman is always at her best curled up among cushions. It is impossible to be disagreeable when you are sitting on the floor. You couldn't conceivably have a row in that position. Perhaps a little sulking might be done but very little and only of the kind that provokes pleasant makings-up. Altogether it is a jolly fine institution and the world would be a better place if there was more of it.
In the opinion of Anthony Barraclough no one sat on the floor so divinely as Isabel, and to tell the truth he rather fancied himself as her floor partner.
"Don't you bother," he said to the maid. "I'll make my own way up."
He handed over his hat and stick and mounted the stairs and knocked at a door on the second floor.
"May I come in?" he asked and did not wait for the reply.
Isabel was built in among a nest of squabs and cushions that circled the tiny grate.
"Nice!" she said with a grin. "I was beginning to think you were deserting me. Rang up three times yesterday I did."
"Awful busy I was," he returned and disposed himself luxuriously beside her. Then he said 'Please' and had every reason to say 'Thank you' only he preferred to express it otherwise.
"What you been doing?"
"Trous-sewing," she answered nodding at a small basket decorated with silk fruit and overflowing with pieces of flimsy needlework. "But I've been dull. Where were you yesterday?"
"All over the place. North, south, east and west and the nor'-nor's and the sou'-sou's into the bargain. It was a hectic day."
Something in the forced gaiety of his voice made her look at him critically.
"Anything wrong?" he asked. "I know I'm not handsome but——"
"I don't know yet," she continued looking, "but you've a kind of flat look at the corners of your eyes where the fun ought to be."
"Now what on earth do you mean by that?"
"A lot. Tony! Almost you've got the——"
"Well?"
"The money face."
"Money face?"
"Um! You mustn't laugh, it's a dreadful face. Daddy had it. He caught it during the rubber boom and it never went away. Are you still doing things with that beastly syndicate, Tony?"
"Here, chuck it," he implored humorously. "We're sitting on the floor, you know. 'Tisn't fair."
But her expression remained very grave.
"I sometimes believe," she said, "you think that's all I'm good for. You don't talk to me as I want you to talk. I'm not always sitting on the floor, Tony. It's lovely at times, but other times I'm different. I'm—oh, I'm a bit of a surprise really."
"What is it you want to know?"
"I want to be told what you're doing 'cos I've a funny feeling it isn't—oh! I don't know."
"You extraordinary child. It's perfectly all right. Rather important, that's all. There's nothing for you to bother about. I was going to tell you because I shall have to be away for three weeks and I thought——"
"Three weeks? But we were going to be married on——"
"Yes, that's rotten part. Still the invitations haven't gone out—and if we were to put it off ten days to be on the safe side——"
"Our wedding!" she said.
"I wouldn't have had it happen for the world. It's frightful bad luck but——"
Isabel drew up her knees. Very little and lovely she looked. Her big brown eyes were open wide and her lower lip was drawn in. A shock of chestnut hair framed the sweet oval of her face. Tony had said she was like a serious angel and he was right.
She nodded twice.
"It must be very important," she said, "if we have to postpone our wedding. I see."
"You don't see," he said edging closer to her. "You can't because I haven't wanted to worry you with details, but it is important—enormously important."
"More important than I am?"
"'Course not."
"Yet it takes you away from me."
"Only for a little while—and look, dear, I don't want you to tell anyone
I'm going."
"Why not?"
"Because—well, it mustn't be known."
"Tony, is—is what you have to do dangerous?"
He answered evasively.
"What I have to do—no."
"Then let me come too. We could be married first. I don't want a fashionable wedding. Let's do that."
He hesitated.
"Couldn't be done, dear. It wouldn't be——"
"Safe?"
"Practicable."
"You don't trust me."
"Of course I trust you," he said putting his arms round her. "I've trusted you from the moment we first met and I'm going on trusting you all the rest of my life. Isn't that good enough?"
"Not nearly," she answered and rose to her feet.
"Isabel," he said very seriously. "When I tell you that there are huge interests at stake—that all this is for something that—that defeats imagination, surely you will take my word."
She pressed a finger to her chin.
"Huge interests means money."
"It does," he replied, "but money on a colossal scale—illimitable.
Doesn't that appeal to you?"
"No," she said. "I've all I want and you're well enough off. What's the good of more?"
"Just listen," he said. "If I bring off this deal there is no wish in the world one couldn't gratify, and bring it off I shall."
He started to pace up and down the narrow floor space of the tiny room, his hands opening and shutting and a light of enthusiasm dancing in his eyes. It was not the money face he wore as he spoke but the expression of the man of deeds, the man who joyed in accomplishment, in vanquishing difficulty, in facing long odds, buoyed up and carried along by the will to win.
"You can't understand, my dear, all this means to me and will mean to you. I haven't even imagined it myself. Think! We could buy islands, build hospitals, govern nations if the mood prompted us. And all for three weeks' work. Lord, it's—Oh! if I could make you see how big it is—how magnificent."
And womanlike she responded,
"I