Fair Margaret - Page 86/206

'Dear me!' exclaimed Mrs. Rushmore. 'Dear me! This is very sudden!' 'You must have made up your mind a long time ago as to what Miss

Donne's share should be worth,' suggested Logotheti, smoothing the

cheque on his knee.

Mrs. Rushmore hesitated.

'But you have already paid much more to Senator Moon,' she said.

'That is my affair,' answered the Greek. 'I have my own views about the

value of the invention, and I have no time to lose. What shall we say,

Mrs. Rushmore.' 'I wish Margaret were here,' said the good lady vaguely.

'I'm very glad she is not. Now, tell me what I am to write, please.' He produced a fountain pen and was already writing the date. The pen

was evidently one specially made to suit his tastes, for it was of

gold, the elaborate chasing was picked out with small rubies and a

large brilliant was set in the end of the cap. Mrs. Rushmore could not

help looking at it, and in her prim way she wondered how any man who

was not an adventurer or a sort of glorified commercial traveller could

carry such a thing. There was an unpleasant fascination in the mere

look of it, and she watched it move instead of answering.

'Yes?' said Logotheti, looking up interrogatively. 'What shall we say?' 'I--I honestly don't know what to say,' Mrs. Rushmore answered, really

confused by the suddenness of the man's proposal. I suppose--no--you

must let me consult my lawyer.' 'I am sorry,' said Logotheti, 'but I cannot afford to waste so much

time. Allow me to be your man of business. How much were you suing Mr.

Moon for?' 'Half a million dollars,' answered Mrs. Rushmore.

'Have you been paying your lawyer, or was he to get a percentage on the

sum recovered?' 'I have paid him about seventeen thousand, so far.' 'For doing nothing. I should like to be your lawyer! I suppose three

thousand more will satisfy him? Yes, that will make it a round twenty

thousand. That leaves your claim worth four hundred and eighty thousand

dollars, does it not?' 'Yes, certainly.' 'Which at four-eighty-four is--' he looked at the ceiling for ten

seconds--'ninety-nine thousand one hundred and eleven pounds, two

shillings and twopence halfpenny--within a fraction. Is that it? My

mental arithmetic is generally pretty fair.' 'I've no doubt that the calculation is correct,' said Mrs. Rushmore,

'only it seems to me--let me see--I'm a little confused--but it seems

to me that if I had won the suit for half a million, the lawyer's

expenses would have come out of that.' 'They do come out of it,' answered Logotheti blandly. 'That is why you

don't get half a million.' 'Yes,' insisted Mrs. Rushmore, who was not easily misled about money,

'certainly. But as it is, after I have received the four hundred and

eighty thousand, I shall still have to deduct the twenty thousand for

the lawyers before handing it over to Margaret, who would only get four

hundred and sixty. Excuse me, perhaps you don't understand.' 'Yes, yes! I do.' Logotheti smiled pleasantly. 'It was very stupid of

me, wasn't it? I'm always doing things like that!' As indeed financiers are, for arithmetical obliquity about money is

caused by having too much or too little of it, and the people who lose

to both sides are generally the comparatively honest ones who have

enough. It certainly did not occur to Logotheti that he had tried to do

Margaret Donne out of four thousand pounds; he would have been only too

delighted to give her ten times the sum if she would have accepted it,

and so far as profit went the whole transaction was for her benefit,

and he might lose heavily by it. But in actual dealing he was

constitutionally unable to resist the impulse to get the better of the

person with whom he dealt. And on her side, Mrs. Rushmore, though

generous to a fault, was by nature incapable of allowing money to slip

through her fingers without reason. So the two were well matched, being

both born financiers, and Logotheti respected Mrs. Rushmore for

detecting his little 'mistake,' and she recognised in him a real 'man

of business' because he had made it.