I'll see whether I can induce him to accept it.
Not now, of course, but presently.
MALONE. [eagerly] Yes, yes, yes: that's just the thing [he hands her the thousand dollar bill, and adds cunningly] Y'understand that this is only a bachelor allowance.
VIOLET. [Coolly] Oh, quite. [She takes it]. Thank you.
By the way, Mr Malone, those two houses you mentioned—the abbeys.
MALONE.
Yes?
VIOLET.
Don't take one of them until I've seen it.
One never knows what may be wrong with these places.
MALONE.
I won't.
I'll do nothing without consulting you, never fear.
VIOLET. [politely, but without a ray of gratitude] Thanks: that will be much the best way. [She goes calmly back to the villa, escorted obsequiously by Malone to the upper end of the garden].
TANNER. [drawing Ramsden's attention to Malone's cringing attitude as he takes leave of Violet] And that poor devil is a billionaire! one of the master spirits of the age!
Led on a string like a pug dog by the first girl who takes the trouble to despise him.
I wonder will it ever come to that with me. [He comes down to the lawn.]
RAMSDEN. [following him] The sooner the better for you.
MALONE. [clapping his hands as he returns through the garden] That'll be a grand woman for Hector.
I wouldn't exchange her for ten duchesses. [He descends to the lawn and comes between Tanner and Ramsden].
RAMSDEN. [very civil to the billionaire] It's an unexpected pleasure to find you in this corner of the world, Mr Malone.
Have you come to buy up the Alhambra?
MALONE.
Well, I don't say I mightn't.
I think I could do better with it than the Spanish government.
But that's not what I came about.
To tell you the truth, about a month ago I overheard a deal between two men over a bundle of shares.
They differed about the price: they were young and greedy, and didn't know that if the shares were worth what was bid for them they must be worth what was asked, the margin being too small to be of any account, you see.
To amuse meself, I cut in and bought the shares.
Well, to this day I haven't found out what the business is.
The office is in this town; and the name is Mendoza, Limited.
Now whether Mendoza's a mine, or a steamboat line, or a bank, or a patent article—
TANNER.
He's a man.
I know him: his principles are thoroughly commercial.
Let us take you round the town in our motor, Mr Malone, and call on him on the way.
MALONE.
If you'll be so kind, yes.
And may I ask who—
TANNER.
Mr Roebuck Ramsden, a very old friend of your daughter-in-law.
MALONE.
Happy to meet you, Mr Ramsden.
RAMSDEN.
Thank you.
Mr Tanner is also one of our circle.
MALONE.
Glad to know you also, Mr Tanner.
TANNER.
Thanks. [Malone and Ramsden go out very amicably through the little gate.