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Updated: June 26, 2025
Five ladies looked at one another a little doubtfully. Mr. Van Reinberg glanced at me, and there was a shrewd twinkle in his keen eyes. "I should think you had better draw for them," he suggested. "Mr. de Valentin can write the names down on pieces of paper, and Mr. Courage, as a disinterested party, can hold the hat." Mr. de Valentin shrugged his shoulders.
"In the first place," I continued, "I doubt whether Mr. de Valentin is a sufficiently heroic figure to fire the imagination of the people. He does not seem to me to have the daring to carry a mob with him, and he will need that. And in the second place " "Well?" I glanced around the room. We were absolutely alone, but I dropped my voice. "Is this in confidence, Mr. Van Reinberg?" I asked. "Sure!"
"Here's Esther saying I'll have to wear black satin knickerbockers and a sword!" "Wear them in Wall Street," Mr. Van Reinberg declared, "and I'll stand you terrapin at the Waldorf. Come on, Count, and the rest of you noblemen. Let's toast one another." Mrs. Van Reinberg motioned me to follow her into the billiard-room. "Well!" she exclaimed, looking at me searchingly,
Perhaps Mr. de Valentin does not know," I added, turning towards Mrs. Van Reinberg, "that your stepdaughter has done me the honor of promising to be my wife." There was a moment's breathless pause. I saw Mrs. Van Reinberg falter, and I saw something which I did not understand flash across Mr. de Valentin's face.
Mr. de Valentin's manner to me was coldly frigid, and a general air of restraint seemed to indicate that the evening had scarcely been a cheerful one. I myself did not feel much like contributing towards a more hilarious state of affairs. We had one rubber only, and then Mrs. Van Reinberg, who as a rule hated to go to bed before midnight, announced her intention of retiring.
I have been told that the country round Lenox and Pittsfield is very beautiful just now, and I shall stay, I expect, with a man I know fairly well, who lives up there Plaskett White." "Why, isn't that strange?" Mrs. Van Reinberg exclaimed. "The Plaskett Whites are our nearest neighbors. If you really are coming that way, you must stay with us for a week, or as long as you can manage it.
Van Reinberg of New York who was talking to me now, and she was speaking in her own language. "Look here, Mr. Courage," she said, leaning towards me with her elbows upon her knees, and nothing left of that elegant pose which she had at first assumed.
"I presume that you are not in earnest, Mr. Van Reinberg," he said in a low tone. "Such a course is utterly out of the question." Mr. Van Reinberg scratched his chin thoughtfully. Mr. de Valentin completed his task, and handed the slips of paper over to me. "I shall ask Mr. Courage," he said, rising, "to distribute these through the agency of chance.
Mr. Van Reinberg leaned forward in his chair. He was beginning, apparently, to take a keen interest in the proceedings. "Of course," he said softly, "the names could be read out, and if any of you took a special fancy to any of the titles, we could have a sort of auction, the proceeds to go to the fund." Mr. de Valentin turned towards him with a stony look. Only his eyes expressed his anger.
Your presence might very possibly tend to check free discussion, and, I might add, would be a source of embarrassment to myself." I glanced towards Mrs. Van Reinberg. "I am here," I said, "by the invitation of our hostess. If Mrs. Van Reinberg asks me to withdraw, I should, of course, have no alternative but to do so.
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