“Monsieur,” said the Frenchman, after an instant's reflection, “I offer none. I did not at the moment perceive the spirit of your words, but I recognize now that it was delicacy itself. I tender you the most profound thanks--for ALL the family.”
After some further conversation the elder Fromentin took his departure. Lord Chaldon apparently proposed to accompany him, but Thorpe begged him to remain, and he put aside his hat once more and resumed his seat.
Thorpe walked about a little, with his hands in his pockets, in a restless way. “If it isn't unpleasant to you, I think I'll light a cigar,” he said suddenly, and moved over to the cabinet. He poured out a drink of neat brandy, as well, and furtively swallowed it. Then he came back, preceded by a cloud of smoke.
“It went terribly against the grain,” he said, with a rueful laugh. “I'd sworn to let no Jew off with an inch of hide left on him--and here three of them have been wheedled out of my grip already.”
“Jews?” exclaimed the Marquis, much puzzled. “Did you--did you think Fromentin was a Jew? God bless me! he's no more one than I am! Why, not even so much, for there IS a Herschell in my pedigree. Why, dear man, they were Crusaders!”
Thorpe smiled somewhat sheepishly. “I never noticed much,” he said. “It was a foreign-looking name. I took it for granted.”
Lord Chaldon bent his brows a little. “Yes-s”--he murmured, meditatively. “I've heard it mentioned that your enterprise was suspected of an anti-Semitic twist. Do you mind my talking a little with you about that?”
“Oh, not at all,” the other answered with languid acquiescence, as he seated himself.
LORD CHALDON'S instructive little monologue on the subject of the Hebrew in finance afforded Thorpe a certain pleasure, which was in its character, perhaps, more social than intellectual.
It was both a flattering and striking experience to have so eminent a man at the side of one's desk, revealing for one's guidance the secrets of sovereigns and cabinets. Great names were mentioned in the course of this dissertation--mentioned with the authoritative ease of one who dined with princes and prime ministers--and Thorpe felt that he shared in the distinction of this familiarity with the august. He was in the position of paying a salary to this courtly old nobleman and statesman, who could tell him of his own intimate knowledge how Emperors conversed with one another; how the Pope fidgeted in his ornate-carved chair when the visitor talked on unwelcome topics; how a Queen and an opera-bouffe dancer waged an obscure and envenomed battle for the possession of a counting-house strong box, and in the outcome a nation was armed with inferior old muskets instead of modern weapons, and the girl got the difference expressed in black pearls.
