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Page 90
"Now, what do you think!" she said. "Of all the stupid idiots,
give me a French idiot to be the stupidest; they have actually
sent me eighteen thousand dollars in gold!"
"Well," said Hargrave, "perhaps you asked them to send you
eighteen thousand dollars in gold."
She closed her mouth firmly for a moment and looked him vacantly
in the face.
"What did I do?" she said, in the old manner of addressing an
inquiry to herself. "The major wanted gold and perhaps I said
gold. Why, yes, I must have said I wanted eighteen thousand
dollars in gold. Well, at any rate, here's the money to pay you
for the sapphires. I'll telegraph the Credit Lyonnais to send me
your eighteen hundred, and you can come around to the Ritz for it
in the morning."
She wished Hargrave to see that the telegram was properly worded,
so the stupid French would not undertake to ship another bag of
coin to her. He wrote it out, so there could be no mistake, and
sent it from Charing Cross on the way back to the club.
Hargrave had to get two porters to carry the leather portmanteau
into his room at the Empire Club. Mrs. Farmingham did not wait
to receive the sapphires. She said he could bring them over to
the Ritz after he had counted the money. She wanted a cup of
tea; he could come along in an hour.
It took Hargrave the whole of the hour to verify the money. The
case had been shipped, the straps were knotted tight and the lock
was sealed. He had to get a man from the outside to break the
lock open. The man said it was an American lock and he hadn't
any implement to turn it.
There were eighteen thousand dollars in American twenty-dollar
gold pieces packed in sawdust in the bag. The Credit Lyonnais
had followed Mrs. Farmingham's directions to the letter. Such is
the custom of the stupid French! She had asked for eighteen
thousand dollars in gold, and they had sent her eighteen thousand
dollars in gold. Hargrave put one of the pieces into his
waistcoat pocket. He wanted to show Mrs. Farmingham how
strangely the stupid French had made the blunder of doing
precisely what she asked. Then he strapped up the portmanteau,
pushed it under the bed, went out and locked the door. He asked
the chief steward to put a man in the corridor to see that no one
went into his room while he was out. Then he got the sapphires
out of the safe and went over to the Ritz.
He met Mrs. Farmingham in the corridor coming out to her
carriage.
"Ah, Mr. Hargrave," she said, "here you are. I just told the
clerk to call you up and tell you to bring the sapphires over in
the morning when you came for the draft. I promised Lady Holbert
last night to come out to tea at five. Forgot it until a moment
ago."
She took Hargrave along out to the carriage and he gave her the
envelope. She tore off the corner, emptied the sapphires into
her hand, glanced at them, and dropped them loose into the pocket
of her coat.
"Was the money all right?" she said.
"Precisely all right," replied the American. "The Credit
Lyonnais, with amazing stupidity, sent you precisely what you
asked for in your telegram." And he showed her the twenty-dollar
gold piece.
"Well, well, the stupid darlings!" Then she laughed in her big,
energetic manner. "I'm not always a fool. Come in the morning
at nine. Good-night, Mr. Hargrave."
And the carriage rolled across Piccadilly into Bond Street in the
direction of Grosvenor Square and Lady Holbert's.
The fog was settling down over London. Moving objects were
beginning to take on the loom of gigantic figures. It was
getting difficult to see.
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