"You are not going to give up a thing I've set my heart on merely because old Woodman's a fool, are you?" she asked her husband, with a touch of scorn. "Jim Stuart is the best friend you ever had. He has become one of the most famous men in America. He would lend distinction to our house. I want him at our next entertainment."
"The thing that puzzles me," Bivens broke in, "is why the devil he will not come to the house. When I meet him down town he's always friendly."
Nan's lips quivered with a queer little smile.
"Will he succeed in this action against these men?"
"No."
"Why?"
"He can't get the facts."
"If he could get them and did succeed, what would happen?"
"He'd shake the foundations of the financial world."
"You could get the facts, couldn't you, dear?"
Nan spoke3 in the softest tones.
"I have them already."
"Why not give them to him?"
"I had thought of that—but it's dangerous."
"Why dangerous?"
"It might bring on a panic."
"What have you to lose by it?"
"Nothing, if I'm wise."
"I've never known anybody to call you a fool."
"A panic's a dangerous thing to monkey with."
"Nonsense!" Nan cried with enthusiasm. "I'll back you to win when the test comes."
Bivens smiled with pride.
"Yes. I could win, I think, having a little inside information about what may happen."
"Why don't you do it, then?"
"It's dangerous," Bivens repeated, thoughtfully.
"It couldn't injure Stuart?" his wife asked cautiously.
"No. It couldn't hurt him. On the other hand, I might make him the unconscious instrument of a great personal vengeance5, double my fortune and possibly land Jim in the White House."
"You must do it, dear!" his wife cried, trembling with suppressed excitement. Bivens hesitated and shook his head.
"It's playing with dynamite6."
"It's worth the risk to double your fortune—do it for my sake!"
Nan leaned close and pressed her husband's hand while her dark eyes found their way into his heart. The hard mouth smiled as he took her flushed face in his hands and kissed her.
"I'll do it," he said with firm accent.
"I know you'll win—you never fail!" she cried, "You'll not lose a moment?"
"No. I'll 'phone him at once."
Bivens called Stuart and made an appointment to meet him at the Algonquin Club for dinner two days later.
"Why two days' delay?" Nan asked petulantly7.
"It will require that time to prepare the papers. Don't worry. I'll put the thing through now."
When Stuart sat down with Bivens in one of the magnificent private dining rooms of his millionaire club two days later, he was struck with the perfection of the financier's dress, and the easy elegance8 of his manners.
"Nan has surely done wonders with some pretty crude material!" he mused9.
As the meal progressed the lawyer's imagination continued to picture the process of training through which she had put Bivens to develop from the poor white Southerner, the polished little man of the gilded10 world he now saw. No flight of his fancy could imagine the real humour of it all. He recalled Nan's diary with grim amusement.
While Bivens had really been wax in her skillful hands since the day of her marriage, the one task she found hard was her desperate and determined11 effort to make him a well-groomed man. She was finally compelled to write out instructions for his daily conduct and enforce them with all sorts of threats and blandishments. She pasted this programme in Bivens's hat, at last, and he was in mortal terror lest some one should lift the inside band and read them. They were minute and painfully insistent12 on the excessive use of soap and water. They required that he wash and scrub two and three times daily. Not only did they prescribe tooth brushes and mouth washes, with all sorts of pastes and powders, but that he should follow it with an invention of the devil for torturing the gums known as "dental floss." To get even with the man who invented the thing Bivens bought him out and stopped its manufacture—only to find the scoundrel had invented a new one and had it on the market three weeks later.
In the midst of this agony of breaking him to the copious13 use of water, Bivens found a doctor who boldly declared that excessive bathing was ruinous to the health—that water was made for fish and air for man. The little millionaire made him chief of the staff of his household doctors, but Nan refused to admit him when she learned his views. Bivens secretly built him a hospital, endowed it, and gave a fund to found a magazine to proclaim his gospel.
It took two years to thoroughly14 break him so that she could always be sure that his nails were trimmed and his clothes in perfect style. He had long since ceased to struggle and had found much happiness of late years in vying15 with her in the perfection of his personal appearance until he had come to fit into the great establishments, which he had built at her suggestion, as though to the manor16 born.
When the dinner was finished Bivens dismissed the waiter, lighted one of his huge cigars and drew from a morocco case which he had placed beside his chair a type-written manuscript. He turned its leaves thoughtfully a moment and handed them to Stuart.
"There's a document, Jim, that cost me ten thousand dollars to prepare; for whose suppression a million dollars would be paid and no questions asked."
"And you give it to me?" the District Attorney asked, with a smile.
"I give it to you."
"But why this generosity17 on your part, Cal?"
The sarcasm18 which the lawyer threw into the playful banter19 of his tone was not lost on the financier. The mask of his cunning, dark visage was not slipped for a moment as he slowly replied:
"I have anticipated that question. I answer it fully4 and frankly20. There is enough dynamite in that document to blow up half of Wall Street and land somebody in the White House."
"And many in the morgue?"
"And some in the penitentiary21. I've watched your work the past nine years with genuine pride, Jim. You've said a lot of hard things about rich malefactors, but you've never touched me."
"No, I think you're too shrewd to be caught in that class, Cal."
"I pride myself that I am. It's only the clumsy fool who gets tangled22 in the criminal law. But a lot of them have done it—big fellows whose names fill the world with noise. I've taken the pains to put into that type-written document the names, the dates, the places, the deeds, the names of the witnesses and all the essential facts. Do what you please with it. If you do what I think you will, some men who are wearing purple and fine linen23 will be wearing stripes before another year and you will be the biggest man in New York."
"And your motive24?"
"Does it matter?"
"It vitally affects the credibility of this story."
"You must know my motive?"
"I prefer to be sure of it before taking so important and daring an action as you suggest."
Bivens rose and stood before his friend with his smooth hands folded behind his back.
"You believe me, Jim, when I say that my pride in your career is genuine?"
"I've never doubted it," was the quick answer.
"Then two suggestions will be enough. Perhaps I wish to get even with some men who have done me a dirty trick or two, and perhaps, incidentally, in the excitement which will follow this exposure of fraud and crime, I may make an honest penny—is that enough?"
"Quite."
"And you'll make the attack at once?"
Stuart glanced rapidly through the first page of the document and his eyes began to dance with excitement.
"The only favour I ask," Bivens added, "is twenty-four hours' notice before you act."
"I'll let you know."
Stuart rose quickly, placed the document in his inside pocket and hurried home.
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收听单词发音
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1
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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stratagem
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| n.诡计，计谋 | |
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3
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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petulantly
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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13
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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vying
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| adj.竞争的；比赛的 | |
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16
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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17
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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19
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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20
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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22
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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23
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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