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The Great Secret, a fiction by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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CHAPTER XXVII. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS |
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_ Mr. Van Reinberg led the way silently into the smoking-room, and ordered Scotch whisky. "Mr. Courage," he said from the depths of his easy-chair, "I've got to ask you a question. What do you think of us?" I laughed outright. "I think," I answered, "that you are a very good husband." He lit a cigar and pushed the box towards me. "I'm glad you put it like that," he said earnestly. "And yet I guess we're to blame. We've let our wives slip away from us. Only natural, I suppose. We have our battlefields and they must have theirs. We rule the money markets, and they aspire to rule in society. I don't know how to blame my wife, Mr. Courage, but I hope you'll believe me when I tell you this: I'd sooner chuck ten or twenty millions into the Atlantic than be mixed up with this affair." "I believe you, Mr. Van Reinberg," I answered. He drew a sigh of relief. I think that my assurance pleased him. "Tell me now," he said; "you are a man of common sense. Is that fellow a crank, or is he going to pull this thing off?" I hesitated. "His scheme is ingenious enough," I said, "and I believe it is quite true that there are a great many people in France who would be glad to see the Monarchy revived. They are a people, too, whom it is easy to catch on the top of a wave of sentiment. But, so far as I can see, there are at least two things against him." "I trust," Mr. Van Reinberg murmured, "that they are big enough." "In the first place," I continued, "I doubt whether Mr. de Valentin is a sufficiently heroic figure to fire the imagination of the people. He does not seem to me to have the daring to carry a mob with him, and he will need that. And in the second place--" "Well?" I glanced around the room. We were absolutely alone, but I dropped my voice. "Is this in confidence, Mr. Van Reinberg?" I asked. "Sure!" "I do not believe that the Power whose intervention he relies so much upon is England. I do not believe that my country would risk so much to gain so little. We are on excellent terms with France as it is. Secret negotiations with Mr. de Valentin would be unpardonable chicanery on our part, and I do not think that our ministers would lend themselves to it." Mr. Van Reinberg nodded. "Whom do you believe he referred to then?" he asked. "Germany," I told him. "That is where I believe that he has made a fatal mistake. He will never make a successful bid for the sympathies of the French people, if he presents himself before them backed by their historic enemy. Of course, you must understand," I added, "that this is pure speculation on my part. I may be altogether wrong. One can only surmise." "On the whole, then," Mr. Van Reinberg asked anxiously, "you would not back his chances?" "I should not," I admitted. For a man who had just invested two million dollars in those chances, Mr. Van Reinberg looked remarkably cheerful. "I'm right down glad to hear you say that," he admitted. "I know nothing about things over in Europe myself, and my wife seemed so confident. It'll be a blow to her, I'm afraid, if it doesn't come off; but I fancy it'll be a bigger one to me if it does!" "You do not fancy yourself, then, as Monsieur le Duc," I remarked smiling. He looked at me in speechless scorn. "Do I look like a duke?" he asked indignantly. "Besides, I'm an American citizen, an American born and bred, and I love my country," he added with a note of pride in his tone. "Paris, to me, means the Grand Hotel, the American bar, the telephone and an interpreter. Mrs. Van Reinberg will stay at the Ritz. I guess I sleep there and that's all. No! sir! When I'm through with business, I'm meaning to spend what I can of my dollars in the country where I made them, and not go capering about amongst a lot of people whose language I don't understand, and who wouldn't care ten cents about me anyway. Some people have a fancy to end their days up in the mountains, where they can hear the winds blow and the birds sing, and nothing else. I'm not quite that way myself. I hope I'll die with my window wide open, so that I can hear the ferry-boats in the river, and the Broadway cars, and the rattle of the elevated trains. That's the music that beats in my blood, Mr. Courage! and I guess I'll never be able to change the tune. Say, will you pass that bottle, sir? We'll drink once more, sir, and I'll give you a toast. May that last investment of mine go to smash! I drink to the French Republic!" I pledged him and we set down our glasses hastily. We heard voices and the trailing of dresses in the corridor. In a moment they all came trooping in. Mrs. Stern looked round the room eagerly. "If he's gone to bed I'll never forgive him," she declared. "I'm just crazy to know whether there isn't some sort of old chateau belonging to the family, that Richard can buy and fix up. Have you seen Mr. de Valentin?" she asked us. "He's gone upstairs, sure enough," Mr. Van Reinberg answered. "Give the poor man a rest till the morning. Where's the Marquis? Come and have a drink, Marquis!" "Quit fooling," Mr. Stern declared testily. "Here's Esther saying I'll have to wear black satin knickerbockers and a sword!" "Wear them in Wall Street," Mr. Van Reinberg declared, "and I'll stand you terrapin at the Waldorf. Come on, Count, and the rest of you noblemen. Let's toast one another." Mrs. Van Reinberg motioned me to follow her into the billiard-room. "Well!" she exclaimed, looking at me searchingly, I could scarcely keep from smiling, but she was terribly in earnest. "I want to know exactly," she said, "what you think of it all. I know my husband has been making fun of it. He does not understand. He never will." "Mr. de Valentin's scheme is a good one," I said slowly, "but he has not told us everything. If you want my opinion--" "Of course I do," she declared. "Then I think," I continued, "that his success depends a good deal upon something which he did not tell us." "What is it?" she asked, eagerly. "It depends, I think," I said, "upon the Power which has agreed to back his claims. If that Power is England, as he tried to make us believe, he has a great chance. If it is Germany, I think that he will fail." She frowned impatiently. "You are prejudiced," she declared. "Perhaps," I answered. "Still, I may be right, you know." "Germany is infinitely more powerful," she objected. "If she mobilized an army on the frontier, and France found half her soldiers disaffected--" "You forget," I interposed, "that there would be England to be reckoned with. England is bound to help France in the event of a German invasion." She smiled confidently. "I don't fancy," she remarked, "that England could help much." I shrugged my shoulders. "Perhaps not," I admitted; "yet I do not believe that German intervention will ever win for Mr. de Valentin the throne of France." She changed the subject abruptly. "Apart from this, let me ask you something else, Mr. Courage. Supposing the plot should succeed. How do you think it will be with us at the French Court? You know more about these things than we do. Shall we be accepted as the original holders of these titles would have been? Do you think that we shall have trouble with the French aristocrats?" "I am afraid, Mrs. Van Reinberg," I answered, "that I am scarcely competent to answer such questions. Still, you must remember that your country-people have secured a firm footing in France, and it will be the King himself who will be your sponsor." She raised her head. Her self-confidence seemed suddenly to have become re-established. "You are right, Mr. Courage," she said. "It was absurd of me to have any doubts at all. And now let me ask you--if I may--a more personal question." "By all means," I answered. "What have you and Adele been quarrelling about?" I looked at her in some astonishment. "I can assure you," I said, "that there has been nothing in the nature of a quarrel between Miss Van Hoyt and myself." She raised her eyebrows. "Then why," she asked, "has Adele gone away at a moment's notice?" "Gone away!" I repeated incredulously. "Is it really possible that you did not know?" Mrs. Van Reinberg asked. "She left just as we went in to the meeting. Mr. Stern's automobile is taking her to the depot." "I had not the slightest idea of it," I declared. "Do you mean that she is not coming back?" "Not at present, at any rate," Mrs. Van Reinberg declared. "You mean to tell me, Mr. Courage, that you have not quarrelled, and you did not know that she was going?" "I had no idea of it," I said, "and I am quite certain that we have not quarrelled." Mrs. Van Reinberg looked as though she found my statement hard to believe. "You had better go to your room," she suggested, "and see if there is not a note for you! She must have a reason for going. She would tell me nothing; but I took it for granted that you were connected with it." "Not to my knowledge," I assured her. "If you will excuse me, I will go and see if she has left any message." I hurried up to my room. There was a note upon my dressing-table. I tore it hastily open. A few lines only, hastily scribbled in pencil:-- "DEAR! "Everything is changed since the news I told you of this evening. We must separate at once, and keep apart. Remember you have only five days. If you remain in America longer than that, your life is not safe. "For my sake, go home! For my sake, also, burn this directly you have read it." _ |
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