Stellan called a cab and drove straight to Selambshof.
Peter the Boss was of course impossible at Laura’s parties. But there was all the same a secret channel of communication between her drawing room and Selambshof. Peter, too, had his interests in society.
Stellan opened a window, climbed in and sat down on the edge of his brother’s bed. He looked like a fat hog when he was asleep. On the night table lay an old silver watch, a cash book and a half-finished cigar. Peter jumped up and rubbed his eyes:
“What the devil is the matter?”
“Business. Kolsnäs is ripe. What will you give me if I get it for you for five hundred thousand?”
Peter was not quite awake yet, but he could always manage to appear indifferent at first.
“Damn Kolsnäs,” he rattled, lighting the half-smoked cigar.
Stellan opened both windows. He also looked supercilious and indifferent. From his manner you would have thought he was the master, rolling in money, and Peter the servant.
“Don’t talk nonsense,” he cut in. “You know you want Kolsnäs like dear life.”
Peter felt a mixture of fear and secret admiration for his brother’s brilliancy and his careless way of handling money. Stellan was, as a matter of fact, much more difficult to trick than he had believed. Peter held nearly all Stellan’s shares in Selambshof as security, but he didn’t own them and there was a damned big difference between the two things. But now this fine gentleman must surely be in a difficult dilemma as he came so early in the morning.
“You seem to imagine that I lie dreaming about Kolsnäs since you come whilst I am still in bed,” ventured Peter cunningly.
“I come from one of Laura’s shows. It was there I saw this opportunity. The matter is urgent. Levy is after the estate. What do you offer?”
“Well, five thousand!”
Stellan laughed aloud:
“Ridiculous! I want fifty thousand.”
Now it was Peter’s turn to laugh.
“You are mad. You have no idea what a big sum fifty thousand is.”
“Fifty thousand. Not a farthing less.”
Peter began to dress. He tried to do so slowly.
“I’ll send Thomson to Manne.”
“Good! Thomson will be kicked out.”
“I’ll go myself.”
“You’ll only see me. Manne will settle nothing without me. He has a horror of business.”
“Well, I’ll give twenty thousand.”
“Good. Levy will get the estate.”
“Thirty thousand.”
“Fifty, not a farthing less.”
Peter whined, reproached Stellan for his extravagance, dwelt upon the fabulousness of the sum and his own miserable means. Meanwhile he calculated quickly and surely and arrived at the result that anyhow it would be a good stroke of business.
“Well, I suppose I shall have to present you with fifty thousand to spend on champagne and gambling.”
Peter sounded quite brokenhearted. But Stellan was not at all touched. He even demanded five thousand in cash. And as soon as Peter had produced the notes he made off as quickly as he had come so that Peter sat there and did not know what had really happened, and believed it was some fine new way of robbing him of some cash. But Stellan returned and in three days the whole business was settled.
Manne had, on Stellan’s advice, turned to the estate agent, O. W. Thomson.
“Thomson has good connections with my brother, who might reflect on Kolsnäs,” he said. “But it is better to choose an indirect way, because you must not appear too keen.”
At Manne’s request Stellan was present at these transactions. That is to say, at all except the last and decisive meeting. For by then he had already got his fifty thousand. And he thought that Manne might as well bear the responsibility himself if there should be any trouble. The result was that Peter seized Kolsnäs for four hundred and fifty thousand only by threatening to withdraw at the last moment—offensively simple.
Poor Manne was both sad and happy when it was all over. He was ashamed to mention the fifty thousand to Stellan and thanked him warmly for his help.
When drawing up the contract he had, by criminal negligence and ignorance, completely forgotten to safeguard the interests of the people on the estate. And this was very hard on a number of old tenants and dependants who had now no refuge but the workhouse.
He had spoken a true word of himself that night:
“Traitor, traitor to his home and to the soil that had nourished him.”
And so it happened when Kolsnäs was thrown into the market in Laura’s drawing room. It was not the first estate that had suffered such a fate, nor would it be the last.
This affair had scarcely become known before Laura came rushing into Stellan’s room. She was furiously angry.
“You have behaved abominably,” she cried. “You have acted behind my back. Why was I not told anything? I had almost promised Levy that he should be allowed to do Manne that little service.”
Stellan made no effort to defend himself. He atoned for his crime by giving his sister a beautiful bracelet of brilliants. There were several of Laura’s jewels that had their little history.
II
Peter the Boss in Love
One warm and calm Saturday evening in July Peter sat alone in his office and examined his books. Round about him Selambshof seemed deserted. Not a single soul had been visible the whole afternoon. But far away from Kolsnäs on the other side of the lake an accordion was heard. They were dancing in a barn and everybody was there.
Peter puffed aloud. He cursed the low, mellow, rich sunshine and the still air in which so many small winged creatures were hovering about! With his massive body he felt alone and helpless. He had often felt so of late. And then there was practically nothing else but the books, the soiled, faded Selambshof books up on the shelf by the fireplace, to busy himself with. But Peter did not look only at the books of
