“With you there? Do you expect me to believe that?”
“A miracle, I admit, but the man is uncanny.
He seemed to sense exactly what was needed.
I personally saw very little of him, but he managed to impress Aileen—so much so that she wants to have him dine with us.”
He looked solemnly at Berenice, and she in turn gazed congratulatingly upon him, adding after a moment. “I’m glad; I really am.
She needs just such a change as this.
She should have had it long ago.”
“I agree,” said Cowperwood.
“Since I can’t be to her what she would like me to be, why not someone else?
Anyway, I hope he keeps his head, and I’m rather inclined to think he will.
Aileen is already planning to go to Paris to shop.
So things are going well enough, I think.”
“Very well,” said Berenice, smiling.
“It looks as though our plans might work out.
So who is to blame?”
“Well, not you, and not me.
It’s one of those things that have to be—like your coming to me last Christmas when I least expected you.”
He began caressing her again, but, interested in her own plans, she resisted him, saying:
“Now, now, I want to hear about London, and then I have something to tell you.”
“London?
Everything looks most promising so far.
I told you in New York about those two men, Greaves and Henshaw, and how I turned them down.
Well, just now at the hotel, before I left, there was a letter from them.
They want to see me, and I have an appointment with them.
As for the larger plan, there is a group here with whom I am planning to talk.
As soon as there is anything definite, I’ll let you know.
But meanwhile, I want to steal away with you somewhere.
We should be able to take a vacation for a little while before I go into all this.
Of course, there’s Aileen. And until she is out of the way . . .” he paused, “my plan, of course, is to urge her to go to Paris, and then we might sail up toward the North Cape or down to the Mediterranean.
One of my agents tells me of a yacht he knows of that can be leased for the summer.”
“Yacht! Yacht!” exclaimed Berenice, excitedly, and at the same time laying a finger on his lips.
“Oh, no, no! Now you’re treading on my plans.
Fixing things I want to fix.
You see——”
But before she could finish he seized her and silenced her with a kiss.
“You are impatient!” she said, softly, “but wait . . .” and she led him to a table set by an open window in the adjoining room.
“You see, my lord, a feast is laid for two. It is your slave who invites you.
If you will be seated, and have a drink with me, and behave yourself, I shall tell you about myself.
Believe it or not, I have solved everything!”
“Everything!” commented Cowperwood, banteringly.
“And so soon?
If only I knew how to do that!”
“Well, nearly everything,” she went on, picking up a decanter containing his favorite wine and pouring a drink for each of them.
“You see, strange as it may seem, I have been thinking.
And when I think . . .” she stopped and looked upward at the ceiling.
He seized the glass she was holding, and kissed her, as she knew he would.
“Back, Caesar!” she teased.
“We are not to drink yet.
You are to sit down there; I will sit here.
And then I will tell you all.