“Of course,” assented Thorpe. “Write it now, if you like.” He pushed his chair forward, closer to the desk, and dipped a pen in the ink. “What I want to do is this,” he said, looking up. “I'll make the promise for thirty-two thousand, and I'll get you to let me have two thousand in cash now--a personal advance. I shall need it, if I'm to hang about on the Continent for four months. I judge you think it'll be four months before things materialize, eh?”
“The Special Settlement, in the natural order of events, would come shortly after the Christmas holidays. That is nearly three months. Then the work of taking fort-nightly profits will begin--and it is for you to say how long you allow that to go on.”
“But about the two thousand pounds now,” Thorpe reminded him.
“I think I will do that in this way,” said Semple, kicking his small legs nonchalantly. “I will buy two thousand fully-paid shares of you, for cash down, NOT vendor's shares, you observe--and then I will take your acknowledgment that you hold them for me in trust up to a given date. In that way, I would not at all weaken your market, and I would have a stake in the game.” “Your stake's pretty big, already,” commented Thorpe, tentatively.
“It's just a fancy of mine,” said the other, with his first smile. “I like to hold shares that are making sensational advances. It is very exciting.”
“All right,” said Thorpe, in accents of resignation. He wrote out two letters, accepting the wording which Semple suggested from his perch on the desk, and then the latter, hopping down, took the chair in turn and wrote a cheque.
“Do you want it open?” he asked over his shoulder. “Are you going to get it cashed at once?”
“No--cross it,” said the other. “I want it to go through my bankers. It'll warm their hearts toward me. I shan't be going till the end of the week, in any event. I suppose you know the Continent by heart.”
“On the contrary, very little indeed. I've had business in Frankfort once, and in Rotterdam once, and in Paris twice. That is all.”
“But don't you ever do anything for pleasure?” Thorpe asked him, as he folded the cheque in his pocket-book.
“Oh yes--many things,” responded the broker, lightly. “It's a pleasure, for example, to buy Rubber Consols at par.”