Edith and John Part 38

"Let Cobb speak," said Monroe.

"Gentlemen, my proposition is the proposed new water system," said Cobb, venturing forth. "What about it?"

"Well, what about it?" asked Peter.

"Can we pull it off?" asked Cobb.

"How much is there in it?" asked the generous Peter.

"Couple hundred thousand," said Cobb.

"Pull her off, then," decided Peter.

"How much do I get out of it?" asked Monroe.

"Aren't you working your little stunt for bigger game, Monroe?" asked Peter.

"What new stunt you up to now?" asked Cobb, suspiciously.

"That's a private matter," replied Monroe.

"What is it, Peter?" asked Cobb. Then to Monroe: "Not scheming behind my back, Monroe?"

"No such intention," answered Monroe.

"What is it, Peter?" asked Cobb, feelingly.

"Monroe, I told you to keep no secrets from Cobb," said Peter.

"What is it. Peter?" asked Cobb.

"Shall I tell, Monroe?" said Peter.

"Dogged if I care," said the unimpressionable Monroe.

"He's after Jarney's daughter and her money," said Peter, rubbing his hands on his legs, and pulling hard on a freshly lighted cigar.

"Ho, that's why young Winthrope was sent to the New York office, was it?" said Cobb, carelessly.

"Yes; it looked too serious seeing him going to her home every day,"

replied Monroe. "While I also went, sometimes, I never got a squint at her."

Cobb became serious at this piece of intelligence. He thought of young Jasper Cobb, his son, as being ent.i.tled to a share of the spoils that might be obtained by an alliance with the Jarneys. He thought all plans had been laid for this catch, and all that were needed was to draw in the net and sort the fishes. He thought that, as a matter of course, there could be no failure. He never thought that his son was unfit for a young lady of the graces of Miss Jarney. He never thought children had a right to be heard in making their choice of a life partner. He never thought that Jarney should be consulted. Men of Cobb's stripe never think of the ethical side of a question. They never think of anything but money--how to get it, and how to spend it. They never think of anything, aside from getting money, but of the voluptuous side of life.

And this astounding statement of Peter's, relative to Monroe's plotting, came as a cross-complaint to him. Baseless wretch is Mr. Monroe!

"What're your prospects, Monroe?" asked Cobb, leaning his head far back in his chair, and blowing smoke upwards, indolently meditating over something that did not go down very well.

"Good," said Monroe.

"Explain?" said Cobb.

"Oh; why, that's a private matter, Mr. Cobb," said Monroe, looking more uncommunicable than ever.

"I must know," insisted Cobb, fidgeting in his chair, with a fine interrogative smile of a.s.sertive power.

"Tell him, Monroe; tell him," said Peter, rubbing his hands, and blowing smoke like a whale spouting water.

"There's nothing tangible yet," said the yielding Monroe.

"Tell it, Monroe!" commanded Peter.

"What is it?" asked Cobb, sarcastically.

"Well; here goes. First, I am working into the good graces of the father first," said he. "When I accomplish that feat, having Winthrope out of my way, I shall press my suit for the young lady's hand. I have been to the Jarney home a great many times for dinner this winter"--he looked as if he wanted to keep the matter a secret--"and I have always found young Winthrope there. He was permitted to see her, as Mr. Jarney explained, as the result of an hallucination caused by an auto accident, and her illness following it. I never got an opportunity to see her. Of course--" he seemed to be unconcerned about her illness, so listlessly did he talk--"it would have been a delicate matter for me to have attempted to have seen her while ill; so I concluded to abide my time.

Getting him away was my first scheme. This accomplished, and, she recovering as I am told, I shall take the first opportunity presented to ask her."

During the recital of the above. Monroe acted more like an automatic talking machine, than a human, so inanimate was his facial expression.

"Would she throw herself away on you?" asked Cobb, drawing one eyelid down as an accompaniment to a mental sneer.

"Am I not as worthy as anybody else, especially Winthrope, who is poor, and has no ancestry?" said Monroe, without a rising or falling inflection in his voice.

"Bully, Monroe; well said!" roared Peter, rubbing and smoking. "But you fellows forget that a woman is usually made a party to such little affairs of the heart. I've had experience, gentlemen; experience; and look at this grand house," waving his hand, with a flourish, around the maroon ta.s.sel.

"That's true," a.s.sented Monroe, without a tremor.

Cobb a.s.sented too, as it suited him to a.s.sent. Peter a.s.sented to his own theory, looking through his own mirror of experience. They all a.s.sented, and rea.s.sented, acquiesced, agreed, yielded--to this a.s.sertion, time after time.

"Still, I have a fighting chance, like all dogs," soliloquized Monroe.

"Ah, you must win," said Peter, not yet discouraged, like Monroe appeared to be; "I never lost hope."

"But what did you get, Peter?" said Monroe, without a glint that would indicate that he meant a jest; "a woman and ten kids!"

"That's all I wanted," replied Peter, grinning. "Why, you old poltroon, I don't pretend to have ancestry; but I do pretend to have money and grat.i.tude."

"Don't get personal, Peter," said the admonitory Monroe.

"Don't, don't get personal," said the pacifying Cobb.

"Oh, no, Cobb; I do not mean to be personal; but how is the money coming from the dives?" answered Peter, rubbing his hands first, then scratching his ear, then pulling an extra pull on his pipe, then spitting, then squinting, then sneezing as if to give three cheers for his observations on the various subjects up for discussion, in all of which he seemed to have the best of the results.

"Fine!" exclaimed Cobb, with his eyes lighting up. "The police are just rolling it into our coffers."

"I need ten thousand more for Jim Dalls," said Peter, looking gloomy, and ceasing to rub his hands.

"It would be cheaper to send a man over there to kill him," answered Cobb.

"Maybe it would; maybe it wouldn't," said Peter; "but he will be back, if he don't get it."