"Yes. But I like to bring good news myself. The specimens you sent have been assayed by first-class, reliable men. They'll do. No gold--but eighty per cent silver. Hey! P'r'aps you expected it."
But Mr. Dumphy could see plainly from Mrs. Conroy's eager face that she had not expected it.
He was mystified, but relieved. It was evident that she had not consulted anybody else, and that he was first on the ground. So he said curtly--
"I don't know," began the lady. "I haven't thought"----
"Exactly!" interrupted Dumphy. "Haven't got any proposition. Excuse me--but" (taking out his watch) "time's nearly up. Look here. Eighty per cent's big thing! But silver mine takes gold mine to run it. All expense first--no profit till you get down. Works, smelting--cost twenty per cent. Here's my proposition. Put whole thing in joint-stock company; 100 shares; five millions capital. You take fifty shares. I'll take twenty-five--dispose of other twenty-five as I can. How's that? Hey? You can't say! Well--think of it!"
But all Mrs. Conroy could think of was two and a half millions! It stared at her, stretching its gigantic ciphers across the room. It blazed in golden letters on cheques,--it rose on glittering piles of silver coin to the ceiling of the parlour. Yet she turned to him with a haggard face, and said--
"But this--this money--is only in prospective."
"Cash your draft for the sum ten minutes after the stock's issued. That's business."
With this certainty Mrs. Conroy recovered herself.
"I will talk--with--my husband," she said.
Mr. Dumphy smiled--palpably, openly, and shamelessly. Mrs. Conroy coloured quickly, but not from the consciousness Mr. Dumphy attributed to her, of detected cunning. She had begun to be ashamed of the position she believed she occupied in this man's eyes, and fearful that he should have discovered her husband's indifference to her.
"I've already seen him," said Mr. Dumphy quietly.
The colour dropped from Mrs. Conroy's cheeks.
"He knows nothing of this," she said faintly.
"Of course," said Dumphy half contemptuously, "he said so; referred to you. That's all right. That's business."
"You did not tell him--you dared not"----she said excitedly.
Mr. Dumphy looked curiously at her for a moment. Then he rose and shut the door.