Miss Drugget Takes the Train by Clarence Budington Kelland

Author:Clarence Budington Kelland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Digital Parchment Services, Inc.

Simpkins opened the door and announced, "Mr. Lucius Quentin," with some dignity, and Mr. Quentin, handsome, smiling, debonair, stepped over the threshold. He was dressed in an immaculate white suit, and carried an expensive Panama hat in a meticulously manicured hand.

"So gracious of you to see me, Miss Drugget," he said ingratiatingly. He elevated arched brows. "May I be permitted to say that you are very lovely this morning?"

She did not ask him to sit down, but looked up at him with level eyes. "I never refused to accept an apple from one of the little girls, even when I knew it was given with ulterior motive."

"I seem," he said smoothly, "to have got off on the wrong foot with you. Much to my regret. If you have formed a bad impression of me, I came hoping to correct it."

"It can be corrected very easily."

"What can I do?"

"You own, I understand, a number of motor hotels."

"Then," she said, "devote yourself to operating them exclusively, and refrain from meddling with mine."

He looked behind him to make sure the door was closed and their conversation could not be overheard.

"My dear young lady," he said softly, "I have special reasons for wishing to add this hotel to my chain. I am rated as a competent businessman. If I see an advantage, I try to obtain it."

"I am not a businesswoman," Columbine replied. "But I am not blind to certain business principles. One of which is that it is preferable to make a profit rather than to suffer a loss. Also, that one should be alert to take advantage of opportunity."

"Exactly my point," Quentin said.

"There arises between us," she said gravely, "the matter of method." "I fail to understand you."

"If," she said, "you are a pupil in school, high marks are desirable. It is better to obtain them by study than by cheating at examinations. I am inexperienced, but I imagine this would apply to a business transaction as well as to a test in mathematics."

"Naturally," he said shortly.

"You wish to own The Grove of Daphne?"

"I have said so."

"Then why," she asked, "have you not come to me with an honest offer, rather than to endeavor to reduce the value of the property by skulduggery?"

"You refused to see your own interest," Quentin said. "You refused quite brusquely." He looked around once more to be sure there were no eavesdroppers. "Various events have occurred to annoy you. Perhaps to threaten the prosperity of your hotel. I cannot prevent you from wondering if there is present a simple cause and effect."

"I do not wonder," she said. "I am certain."

"In which case," he said, "you will also be certain that there will be additions to the list of annoyances, until a point is reached where the value of your property to a purchaser is gravely debased. You mentioned an apple a moment ago. Very good. Your hotel is a nice red apple. Wouldn't it be wiser to sell that apple while it is firm and ripe rather than to wait for worms to get in it or rot to attack its core?"

"Possibly yes," she said.

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