filling the bowl with dark but fragrant tobacco. Presently he rang the bell.
“Tell Mr. Da Souza I wish to see him here at once,” he told the servant, and, though the message was a trifle peremptory from a host to his guest, Da Souza promptly appeared, suave and cheerful.
“Shut the door,” Trent said shortly.
Da Souza obeyed with unabashed amiability. Trent watched him with something like disgust. Da Souza returning caught the look, and felt compelled to protest.
“My dear Trent,” he said, “I do not like the way you address me, or your manners towards me. You speak as though I were a servant. I do not like it all, and it is not fair. I am your guest, am I not?”
“You are my guest by your own invitation,” Trent answered roughly, “and if you don't like my manners you can turn out. I may have to endure you in the house till I have made up my mind how to get rid of you, but I want as little of your company as possible. Do you hear?”
Da Souza did hear it, and the worm turned. He sat down in the most comfortable easy-chair, and addressed Trent directly.
“My friend,” he said, “you are out of temper, and that is a bad thing. Now listen to me! You are in my power. I have only to go into the City to-morrow and breathe here and there a word about a certain old gentleman who shall be nameless, and you would be a ruined man in something less than an hour; added to this, my friend, you would most certainly be arrested for conspiracy and fraud. That Syndicate of yours was a very smart stroke of business, no doubt, and it was clever of you to keep me in ignorance of it, but as things have turned out now, that will be your condemnation. They will say, why did you keep me in ignorance of this move, and the answer—why, it is very clear! I knew you were selling what was not yours to sell!”
“I kept you away,” Trent said scornfully, “because I was dealing with men who would not have touched the thing if they had known that you were in it!”
“Who will believe it?” Da Souza asked, with a sneer. “They will say that it is but one more of the fairy tales of this wonderful Mr. Scarlett Trent.”
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