'I suppose,' he added, 'you
find a difficulty in appreciating my state of mind when I did the
deal.'
'Not a bit,' said Mr Levi. 'I once bought an electric launch on the
Thames in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the
most satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it's a simple
accident that you own this hotel at the present moment?'
'A simple accident - all because of a beefsteak and a bottle of
Bass.'
'Um!' grunted Mr Sampson Levi, stroking his triple chin.
'To return to Prince Eugen,' Racksole resumed. 'I was expecting
His Highness here. The State apartments had been prepared for
him. He was due on the very afternoon that young Dimmock died.
But he never came, and I have not heard why he has failed to
arrive; nor have I seen his name in the papers. What his business
was in London, I don't know.'
'I will tell you,' said Mr Sampson Levi, 'he was coming to arrange a
loan.'
'A State loan?'
'No - a private loan.'
'Whom from?'
'From me, Sampson Levi. You look surprised. If you'd lived in
London a little longer, you'd know that I was just the person the
Prince would come to. Perhaps you aren't aware that down
Throgmorton Street way I'm called "The Court Pawnbroker",
because I arrange loans for the minor, second-class Princes of
Europe. I'm a stockbroker, but my real business is financing some
of the little Courts of Europe. Now, I may tell you that the
Hereditary Prince of Posen particularly wanted a million, and he
wanted it by a certain date, and he knew that if the affair wasn't
fixed up by a certain time here he wouldn't be able to get it by that
certain date.
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