A Rich Man's Relatives Volume II Part 7

"I vill give a cheque for two tousand dollars. You must hold over the rest for the present."

"Make it three, and I will take your note for the rest at thirty days--Sim!" touching the hand-bell at his elbow.

"That vill not do! I shall not be able to pay so soon," said Rouget more disturbed. What did the man mean by calling in his clerk so quickly to increase his embarra.s.sment?

"Never mind, Sim! a mistake," and the door closed again.

"Tirty days would be no use. You mus give me time. I have had looses, and want time to retrieve myself."

"But how? Mr. Rouget. You will say I have no right to ask such a question, perhaps, and I dare say I appear discourteous; but in business it is essential to understand the case clearly, and our transactions are for such large sums that you must excuse seeming intrusiveness. Will sixty days suit you?"

"No. I want time! and freedom from all anxieties. I have a _systeme_ wich is infallible in the end, and must make me rich, but it demands time, watchfulness, and money."

"Phew!"--Jordan whistled slowly, lying back in his chair and burying his hands in his pockets. "That is--Well, we will not wrangle over spilt milk, and I do not question your right to do as you choose with your own money; but it seems to me, when you granted those large mortgages, you made use of that same expression--referred to something, something or other under the name of a system."

"And what then?" said Rouget flus.h.i.+ng. A little indignation would help him, conversationally at least, he began to think. Not being in trade, he was unfamiliar with the liberties which money will empower a lender to take with the man who would borrow, or worse, who would be excused when the time comes round for repayment.

"Oh! nothing. Only if it has cost $150,000 already before the system begins to work favourably, it may take as much more yet, and where is the money to come from?"

"It vill not! It _cannot_ take so much. It mus' be propice ver soon. I have confidence. I have considered. There is certainty!"

"And the first of the three repayments of $50,000 comes due in six months."

"I know it, and I want you to add dese few tousands to the new mortgage you will draw--wid interests and commissions, all to be sure, widout question;" and the poor man rallied his waning pomposity to make one little shrug in naming the gains and perquisites of the _roturier_; before whom, his heart misgave him, he might yet have to quake.

"But, my dear sir, the operation is not a profitable one, and I did not contemplate renewing the mortgage. I can do much better with the money on the street."

"_Mon Dieu!_ Jourdain. What do I hear? Increase ze interests if so mus' be--and ze security is good. Ze ministre, _mon frere_, say zey are firs cla.s.s, and zat I pay _trop_--too much."

"Quite so, Mr. Rouget, that is just where it is. I have my feelings and my reputation like another man. Why should I place myself in such a position that the Minister of Drainage and Irrigation should look on me as a usurer? I can command better terms for my money on the street, with nothing said, than I could charge you on your mortgage even with the loss of reputation involved in that word usurer."

"My dear sair! But ze mortgages were to be for fortune to M.

Randolphe, in heemself marrying to Adeline, who would have the _survivance_ of La Hashe for _dot_."

"But if receiving interest on the mortgages is to be contingent on the success of a 'system'--and of course a son-in-law must grant indulgence if his wife's father gets behind--the young people might not have much to live on. In any case, there are still the other instalments--a very fair provision--if the young lady should condescend, and the young man can be brought to the point--which, with the unruly youth of the present day, is, I confess, doubtful; and the more difficult to accomplish, the less ground of dissatisfaction there may be, beyond mere aversion to be dictated to. Business arrangements cannot be left open, in waiting, to accommodate the whims of boys and girls."

"Would you buy La Hache? How much would you give?"

"Are you in earnest? Do you propose to hand it over in settlement of the mortgages?"

"How much more would you give--'to boot,' as you say in buying a horse."

"I didn't contemplate buying. It would not suit me to have so large a sum tied up in unremunerative acres. If I were to buy, it could only be that I might sell again, and that involves delays, expenses, uncertainties, loss of interest. No! Mr. Rouget, it is not to be thought of. If there is a default in payment all the mortgages fall due at once, and in our small market the sum involved in the foreclosure is as large as any buyer would be likely to bid on one property."

"But, my friend! Ze securities aire ample. You had it valued four years ago."

"Certainly. It seemed safe for the money at that time. But you were then supposed to be well off, independently of the property; today you have explained that you are so no longer, and cannot even attend to the regular interest."

"Lend me anoder fifty tousand on de property."

"Not to be thought of."

"Tirty----"

"Could not do it."

"Tventy----"

"Sorry it cannot be."

"Ze lands aire rich."

"Realize them, then, Mr. Rouget. I will promise to place no unnecessary impediments in your way."

"Zere is vealth in ze ground itself. Richesses of minerals. See!

Behold," and he drew from under his fur gloves, cap, and m.u.f.fler, which he had thrown upon the table in a heap on entering, a small box which he proceeded to open, and displaying a number of mineralogical specimens, handed across to the other. There was a green incrustation on the stones where they had been long exposed to the weather, but the new faces made by recent hammer-fracture, shone red and metallic like a beetle's back.

"Ah," said Jordan. "Really very nice. I am no judge of such things, but to my ignorant eye some of these must be nearly pure copper. Were they found at La Hache, and does the deposit appear extensive?"

"Dey were in de swamp, a mile back from the river, last fall. We were shooting, I, that is, and a young _savant_ of my friend's, who studies wit Professor Hammerstone. The professor has examined, himself, since den, and he finds the indications ver rich and abundant. He says zere is a fortune there beyond compute. Now! What say you? You know the Professor Hammerstone is of great reputation. Wat you say now?"

"Say? For one thing, Mr. Rouget, I congratulate you, and I would say that your prospects look infinitely more hopeful from this point of view than in connection with your 'system,' which--you must forgive my saying it--was leading you to destruction. In heaven's name let the 'system' slide, and apply yourself to develop your property."

"But ze money? my friend. You cannot develop wid notting. Lend me money, and I vill give my vor d'honneur"--and he patted his palms outstretched on the bosom of his greatcoat--"to abandon de systeme."

"Mining matters are outside of my field; I do not understand them. You should call on some of our leading capitalists and speculators with your specimens. They will look into the affair, and if there is anything in it, will make you a proposal. On one point only let me offer a word of advice. Do not insist upon too much money down to begin with. You cannot expect them to subscribe a capital merely to hand it over to you. Show your willingness to take the bulk of your price in shares and you will get something very handsome indeed. So soon as the stock is all taken up, the shares become saleable, rising and falling in sympathy with public talk, long before any of the ore has been got to market, and you may be able to sell out at good prices very soon, if the scheme happens to strike the general fancy. For myself, as I have said, mining is not in my line, but I will do what I can not to embarra.s.s you. I will take your note at ninety days for that unpaid interest, and as for the mortgage due next summer, we will talk of it when the time comes, and, meanwhile, we shall have time to see how the mining enterprise will prosper--Sim!"

Sim appeared, received orders to draw a promissory note for Mr.

Rouget to sign, and withdrew, followed by that gentleman seemingly let down from the self-satisfied att.i.tude of feeling in which he had entered--meeker, much meeker, but yet more hopeful for his own future than he would have felt, perhaps, if his demands had been complied with.

CHAPTER VII.

IN THE RUE DES BORGNES.

The Banque Sangsue Pretense occupied the chief part of its own cut-sandstone building on the Rue des Borgnes, the remainder, conspicuous in bra.s.s and plate gla.s.s, being the offices of Ralph Herkimer and Son, general operators, who were "in" railways, in minerals, in finance, in whatever promised to turn an honest penny. A smart man was that Ralph Herkimer, his neighbours said, who tried everything, and made everything pay. Always early in the field, and getting the cream of the speculation, while other men were pondering its prospects, and then putting off on them the closely skimmed milk which must always be got rid of--the sh.e.l.ls, which the oyster-eater must make somebody carry away if he would not be smothered in the ruins of his former banquets.

The bank was an enterprise originated by Ralph himself--evolved by him when his ambition had found the local share list too narrow a field.

Why should he labour, he thought, to pull strings, and not always efficient ones, to make established stocks jump up and down as he desired, when he was now strong enough to build an automaton of his own, which should obey his wishes without fail, and without outside interference? His friends wondered at his choice of a name so little calculated to invite business; but he was of opinion that that was of little moment. Wherever there is money to lend, the borrowers will scent it out, as flies discover a honey-pot, by instinct. It was small investors whom he wished to attract, those who, having little money, are eager to get much interest. In the general increase of wealth, and the fall in rates of interest, these worthy people find their expenses increasing while their incomes are falling off, and the image of a lending bloodsucker, while unattractive to the borrower, who nevertheless submits to the lancet, is pleasing rather than otherwise to those who would share the spoils.

Ralph was president and manager of the inst.i.tution, "filling two offices for one salary," as he sometimes said, "in his desire that the bank should do well;" and benefiting largely in many ways, as he did _not_ say, by the unsupervised control which thus fell into his hands.

The bank parlour and his own private office were only divided by a wall, and they were connected by a very private door between the dressing rooms pertaining to the two apartments, so that the clerks and the business of both establishments were at all times under the master's eye, the master was virtually in both places at the same time, and he could at any time be in the other if an undesirable visitor was to be evaded.

Ralph was in his office. He had been presiding at a meeting of the St.

Laurence, Gattineau and Hudson's Bay Railway, consisting of himself and a couple of others, at which they had granted a contract to construct another fifty miles running north. They had also arranged to hold a demonstration on the occasion, with speeches and champagne, to be followed on the morrow by placing a quant.i.ty of the stock on the market. As soon as he was left alone he took from a drawer some specimens of plumbago brought from lands of his which the road he had been a.s.sisting to place under construction would open up. Lumps of l.u.s.trous purple blackness, like a raven's plumage, which he lingered admiringly, muttering to himself, "They will bring value soon now, but we must wait till the road is nearly built. If they were brought out now they would be half forgot before we could take people up to look at them. Revivals generally fall flat, people just remember enough of what they heard before to make it harder to interest them with it again. We must wait till just before the road is going to open, and then spring tracts A and B upon the public. Rich deposit, rare mineral, joint stock company, limited liability, unlimited profit, and so forth. When these are disposed of, and the company is just going to work upon them, tracts C and D can be discovered to be as rich as the others, and offered likewise. That will be enough to attempt for some years. By the time C and D are in working order, the owners of A and B will be doing something foolish, and having discouragement, and then it will be no use to offer E and F for ever so long. Yet it would not improve prospects to offer all at once, it would only bring down the value and send other people prospecting. We can then fall back on the phosphate beds," and he glanced at some other specimens in his drawer.

"By that time the second fifty miles of rail will be built, and we will be able to issue debentures. Our stockholders will have had no dividends, so they will be sure to take the bonds and new preference shares to get something out of the old enterprise--no operation so popular as throwing good money after bad--and then, to secure traffic for the far-away end of the line, they will buy my phosphate beds, and work them. That will answer well enough. I shall have unloaded the last of my railway shares ere then. I wonder why the contractors agreed to take so much stock in payment? They must have more faith in our enterprise than I have, or can they have got hold of tracts G, K, L, and Q? But they have never named plumbago once. Can that be slyness? In any case they want watching. I'll keep my eyes peeled."