Still, however, there is breathing and moving room in some of the corridors, and thither many have taken refuge.
Violet dances, and she sings, and laughs sometimes, but not as she did of old.
The earl and Howard Murpoint were alone in a corner.
"A great crush," said the earl, stroking his white mustache. "The young people seem to be enjoying themselves, which brings me to the remark that you ought to be classed with the juveniles, Mr. Murpoint."
And he looked at the capitalist with a cold smile.
"I am not very old, certainly," said Howard Murpoint. "Some would call me very young."
"For so successful a man," put in the earl, with another smile.
"I have had my fair share of fortune," said Howard Murpoint, "but perhaps, like Sempronius, I have done more than deserve success--worked for it. That reminds me, my lord, that you have not yet made up your mind to join us in the new Penwain mines."
He glanced at the earl as he spoke, then looked away to the ballroom with a careless air.
"Eh--hem!" said the earl, "you wish my name to appear on the list of directors."
"Exactly," said Mr. Howard Murpoint. "An earl pleases, and--pardon me, my lord--soothes the monetary public, as you are aware."
The earl frowned, if a slight contraction of the eyebrows can be called a frown.
"I am already on the board of several of your companies, Mr. Murpoint, at your request."
"Certainly at my request, my lord; but you have not undertaken any responsibility, and I trust, have found your reward."
"Eh? Yes," said the earl. "To put it plainly, I have received certain shares as an equivalent for the use of my name, and they have paid tolerably well."
"Very well, I think," said Howard Murpoint, with quiet and smiling emphasis.
"Tolerably well," resumed the earl, as if he had not been interrupted. "But as you seem to attach so much importance to my--the fact of my name appearing on the list of the Penwain Mine Company, it has occurred to me that--ahem!--it may be worth more than I receive for it. I speak plainly."
"I am honored by your candor," said Howard Murpoint, with a crafty smile. "You have forgotten, while enumerating the equivalents received, some slight service which I have been enabled to render you."
"Loans, my dear sir," said the earl, "loans; which, of course, I shall pay. Merely loans."