In a handsomely appointed room of one of the largest hotels in London a man was sitting at the head of a table strewn with blotting-paper and writing materials of every description.Half a dozen chairs had been carelessly pushed back,there were empty champagne bottles upon the sideboard,the air was faintly odorous of tobacco smoke -blue wreaths were still curling upwards towards the frescoed ceiling.Yet the gathering had not been altogether a festive one.There were sheets of paper still lying about covered with figures,a brass-bound ledger lay open at the further end of the table,In the background a young man,slim,pale,ill-dressed in sober black,was filling a large tin box with documents and letters.
It had been a meeting of giants.Men whose names were great in the world of finance had occupied those elaborately decorated leather chairs.There had been cynicism,criticism,and finally enthusiasm.For the man who remained it had been a triumph.He had appeared to do but little in the way of persuasion.His manners had been brusque,and his words had been few.Yet he remained the master of the situation.He had gained a victory not only financial but moral,over men whose experience and knowledge were far greater than his.He was no City magnate,nor had he ever received any training in those arts and practices which go to the making of one.For his earlier life had been spent in a wilder country where the gambling was for life and not merely for gold.It was Scarlett Trent who sat there in thoughtful and absorbed silence.He was leaning a little back in a comfortably upholstered chair,with his eyes fixed on a certain empty spot upon the table.The few inches of polished mahogany seemed to him -empty of all significance in themselves -to be reflecting in some mysterious manner certain scenes in his life which were now very rarely brought back to him.The event of to-day he knew to be the culmination of a success as rapid as it had been surprising.
He was a millionaire.This deal to-day,in which he had held his own against the shrewdest and most astute men of the great city,had more than doubled his already large fortune.A few years ago he had landed in England friendless and unknown,to-day he had stepped out from even amongst the chosen few and had planted his feet in the higher lands whither the faces of all men are turned.
With a grim smile upon his lips,he recalled one by one the various enterprises into which he had entered,the courage with which he had forced them through,the solid strength with which he had thrust weaker men to the wall and had risen a little higher towards his goal upon the wreck of their fortunes.Where other men had failed he had succeeded.To-day the triumph was his alone.He was a millionaire -one of the princes of the world!
The young man,who had filled his box and also a black bag,was ready to go.He ventured most respectfully to break in upon the reflections of his employer.
"Is there anything more for me to do,sir?"Trent woke from his day-dream into the present.He looked around the room and saw that no papers had been omitted.Then he glanced keenly into his clerk's face.
"Nothing more,"he said."You can go."
It was significant of the man that,notwithstanding his hour of triumph,he did not depart in the slightest degree from the cold gruffness of his tone.The little speech which his clerk had prepared seemed to stick in his throat.
"I trust,sir,that you will forgive -that you will pardon the liberty,if I presume to congratulate you upon such a magnificent stroke of business!"Scarlett Trent faced him coldly."What do you know about it?"he asked."What concern is it of yours,young man,eh?"The clerk sighed,and became a little confused.He had indulged in some wistful hopes that for once his master might have relaxed,that an opportune word of congratulation might awaken some spark of generosity in the man who had just added a fortune to his great store.He had a girl-wife from whose cheeks the roses were slowly fading,and very soon would come a time when a bank-note,even the smallest,would be a priceless gift.It was for her sake he had spoken.He saw now that he had made a mistake.
