“That is she. Good Lord!” cried Sir Ralph in amazement. “Do you know her?”
“Oh, yes, I know her,” said Michael grimly; “now let me hear the story of this Princess all over again. How did you come to meet her?”
“I met her in Paris. She was introduced to me after the opera,” said Sir Ralph patiently; “as a matter of fact, I forgot all about it until she reminded me of the fact.”
“Ah, this is where the story begins,” said Michael; “when did she remind you of the fact?”
Sir Ralph detailed briefly the unconventional character of the meeting.
“I see,” said Michael, “her car had broken down providentially just outside your house. Beautiful and most gorgeously arrayed, how could you resist her pathetic appeal? And so that is how you met her, is it? Oh, Kate, Kate!” he shook his head.
“Kate!” asked the bewildered magnate. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Michael took no notice of the question.
“I must ask you to give me a more detailed account of your meetings. Of course, you met her afterwards.”
“Yes, I met her. And she was very charming,” said Sir Ralph.
“And particularly interested in business?” asked Michael.
“No, she did not know much about business. There you are wrong. You are trying to prove that she is an adventuress. She knew nothing whatever about business,” said Sir Ralph triumphantly; “in fact, I had to explain things over and over again.”
Michael leant over and patted his arm as he might have done to a distraught child.
“What things did you explain, little man?” he asked.
Here, however, he lost the trail for, either because he could not or would not remember, Sir Ralph was very vague at this point. Michael sat at his desk, his head between his hands thinking rapidly.
First Flanborough, then Boltover, and now Ralph Sapson—what was the association?
“Have you any business dealings with Flanborough?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” asked Ralph cautiously.
“Is there any connection between your companies?”
“My dear chap, what a question to ask,” said Sir Ralph. “You know, as well as I, that all business people, who operate on a big scale, are associated in some way or other. I run railways and quarries and things, and Flanborough runs ships and gold mines. I am interested in his things and he has shares in mine.”
Being a business man he did not tell Michael of the arrangement which he had entered into for the benefit of the unthriving port of Seahampton, because it is the way of business men to be mysterious and uninforming about the commonplaces of commercial intercourse.
“Well, that’s that,” said Ralph after waiting in vain for some illuminating observation from his friend.
“And what is the other matter?”
Here Sir Ralph found it more difficult to make a beginning.
“It is rather a delicate subject, Michael,” he said, “for it touches my personal honour.”
“Dear, dear,” said Michael sympathetically, and, if the truth be told, a little mechanically, because his mind was occupied elsewhere with a greater and more important problem, than with the personal honour of the Sapsons.
“And not only that, but the honour of somebody we both admire,” said Sir Ralph awkwardly. “The fact is, Michael, I am engaged to Moya. It isn’t generally known, but it is so and naturally I haven’t seen as much of her as I could have wished in this past week. Also I have been a very busy man.”
“Naturally,” said Michael sympathetically. “You have already told me about the Princess, you remember.”
“Well, you are a man of the world,” said Sir Ralph, going very red, “and you will understand. Anyway, I haven’t seen as much of Moya as I could have wished. The fact is,” he blurted out, “Moya is carrying on!”
“Carrying on,” said the puzzled Michael, “carrying on what, or whom?”
“She meets him every day in the park and they go sketching together in the country,” said Sir Ralph rapidly. “I haven’t spoken to Flanborough about it, but it is all rather rotten.”
“If by ‘carrying on’ you mean that Moya is indulging in a flirtation, it is not only very rotten, but it must have been very awkward for you,” said Michael, “unless you could be perfectly certain of your fiancée’s movements, you and your Princess were liable at any moment to run against her. It was very inconsiderate of Moya. Who is her friend?”
“A beastly artist,” said Ralph savagely, “a man who had an exhibition of simply rotten pictures. I don’t think he has a bob in the world, and he’s a most untidy looking person. I have seen them together with my own eyes and he treats Moya outrageously. And Moya seems to like it.”
“Does he beat her or anything?” asked Michael wearily.
He was growing tired of the interview and wanted to be alone to work out the new combination which had been presented to him.
“He compromises her,” said Ralph with vehemence; “holds her hand and calls her ‘child’ in public. It is simply disgraceful!”
“You can trust Moya,” said Michael, “she will do nothing which jeopardises her prospects.”
“She has plenty of money of her own,” interrupted Ralph.
“It is curious how your mind runs to money. I wasn’t thinking of that. I was thinking of her social prospects. She is a very shrewd girl. A little romance will do her no harm, Ralph.”
“But, hang it, she’s got me!” said Ralph wrathfully.
“I said ‘romance,’ ” said Michael with offensive emphasis; “you’re not ‘romance,’ you’re ‘business.’ ”
But Sir Ralph was not satisfied.
“Perhaps if you saw her and had a few words with her,” he suggested, “she might take a little notice.”
“I should leave her presence a mental and physical wreck,” said Michael decidedly. “No, Ralph, you must manage your own love making without calling in the—er, police.” (Sir Ralph winced.) “I don’t know Moya well enough to give her advice on so delicate a matter—I only proposed to her once and that has given me no right to urge your suit. One question I should like to ask you before
