It's greatly unfair to the public."
"And just for that you came back? What a reason!" Scorn lashed from her.
"Yes, Mr Larssen is right! I owe it to my self-respect to be
magnanimous. You can return to your mistress--I'll forego my divorce.
Sign the papers he wants you to, and you can live out your life as John
Riviere. Your money, of course, comes to me."
The shipowner, grimly triumphant, said nothing. Matheson, in his blaze
of anger, had turned Olive definitely and finally against himself. There
was no call for Larssen to add to the command of her words.
Matheson's anger was spent. A great tiredness crept over his will. He
could fight no more. Larssen and Olive had beaten him down--beaten him
down through his anxiety to shield Elaine. Why should he sacrifice her
for the sake of an altruistic ideal? The public he had striven to
protect would not thank him for intervening in their interests. He would
be merely a quixotic fool.
He felt will-tired, soul-tired, more tired even than on the night of
March 14th. He could fight no more.
He sank down into a chair, and presently he said dully: "Show me the
prospectus."
Larssen unhurriedly produced from a drawer in his desk a private draft
prospectus such as is offered to the underwriters. On it was a list of
names--the firms to whom it was being shown confidentially before public
issue.
He reached for the electric bell to summon Sylvester as a witness to
Matheson's signature, but at that very moment the secretary knocked and
entered quickly with an open cablegram, which he passed to his chief.
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