Читать книгу The Gunner - Edgar Wallace - Страница 7

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"I see no reason in the world why the wedding should be postponed, Luke." The hideous business of coroner's inquisition was only a day old, and an accountant's statement that the dead boy's affairs were "involved" was accepted and no details were asked.

Margaret Leferre could not understand herself; her own calm astonished her.

Had she ever loved this suave man who stood before her, apparently agreeing, as though Rex were his dearest friend? Sometimes she was afraid that he would read her loathing of him in her eyes—she was amazed to find herself telling him now, with the greatest calmness and in a tone that was sadly sweet, that she saw no reason why the ceremony should be postponed.

"My poor darling!" He took her in his arms, and she did not resist. Rather, she raised her cold lips to his, and hated herself. But the Judas kiss was his, not hers that was a tattered comfort.

"There is nothing in the world I would not do to make life a little more smooth for you," he was saying. "If money could buy you happiness I would beggar myself!"

She smiled faintly at this. Here was a man ready to betray his gods. He had ruined Rex; he had always hated him. She remembered half-forgotten phrases of his, little irritated comments upon Rex's carelessness in financial matters.

He put her at arm's length and scrutinized her a little sadly. The pallor and the soft shadows beneath her eyes gave her an unearthly loveliness.

"Naturally I've been worried sick...what a fool I was on the 'phone to talk of insurances—it was indecent...I just didn't know what to say—"

"Luke, are you awfully rich?" She was always staggering him with questions like that.

"Why—yes, I suppose I am. The bank isn't doing terribly well—on the trading side...we are merchants as well, you know—but I have over half a million private fortune. I thought you knew."

She smiled faintly. "I have never asked you. I'm worried about—poverty. We have been poor—desperately. My father left us nothing, poor dear...it must be wonderful to be so rich—to have command of money—never to be bothered about bills, never to feel the frantic urge to go out and earn something."

He was regarding her in open-eyed astonishment.

"But I never knew...my dear, how awful! I thought you had an income?"

She shook her head. This time she was not acting.

"If money will give you a sense of security, and of course it will, I'll...why, I'd give you control of every cent I have in the world—"

He saw her incredulous smile and was angry with himself, as though in that gesture of unbelief he detected some reservations, some gesture of insincerity in his offer. "Why not? Thousands of men put all their property in their wives' names. It is a sane thing to do—it keeps a man steady and it will make us really partners. Wait."

He was at the 'phone—as eager, as enthusiastic as a boy pursuing some new and delightful idea.

"Luke...is that your lawyer you're calling?" Conscience overwhelmed her with a sudden fear; she realized for the first time the enormity of her treachery and was terrified.

"Yes, Hilton—it is Luke Maddison speaking...you had the draft of the antenuptial contract? Well, include everything! You have the list of my securities?...Yes, all. And the cash in bank—everything...my interest in Maddison's...no, I'm not mad!"

"You are!" She was standing by him now, her face white as death. The words came tremulously. "You're mad, Luke—I didn't mean it..." He smiled and kissed her, and there was something in his eyes that made her shrink back—something that recalled the words of Danton Morell.

"You are his first obsession at the moment!" She stood there, her hands gripped, her breath coming quickly and more quickly, and heard him override the protests which came from the other end of the wire.

Presently he hung up the 'phone and turned to her, a smile of triumph on his flushed face.

"You are Maddison's!" he said grandly. "Lock, stock and barrel, darling—and I am what old Bird calls a Child of the Poor."

Even she could not realize that he was speaking prophetically.