An English Cabinet Minister and an American diplomatist, with
their wives, and Jimmy, completed the party. No one noticed the two men
at the little table near the wall.
"You are a magician," the Princess whispered to Wingate. "Never could I
have believed that my dear Josephine would become young again. They speak
of her already as the most beautiful woman on the Riviera, and with
reason. I am proud of my godchild. And they tell me that you," she went
on, "have done great things in the world of finance, as well as in the
underworld of politics. Those are worlds, alas!" she added with a little
sigh, "of which I know nothing."
"They are worlds," Wingate replied, "which exist more on paper than
anywhere else."
"Is it true, Wingate," the Cabinet Minister asked him curiously, "that it
was you who broke the British and Imperial Granaries?"
"If there is such a thing," Wingate answered with a smile, "as a world of
underground politics--the Princess herself coined the phrase--then I
think I may claim that what passed between me and the directors of that
company is secret history. As a matter of fact, though, I think I was to
some extent responsible for smashing that horrible syndicate."
"It ought never to have been allowed to flourish," the Minister
pronounced. "Its charter was cunningly devised to cheat our laws, and it
succeeded.
Pages:
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239