'How do you know what my
business is with him?'
'Suffice it to say that I know. You will never get that million
pounds out of him.'
Prince Eugen gasped, and then swallowed his excitement. 'Who
has been talking? What million?' His eyes wandered uneasily
round the room. 'Ah!' he said, pretending to laugh. 'I see how it is. I
have been chattering in my delirium. You mustn't take any notice
of that, Aribert. When one has a fever one's ideas become
grotesque and fanciful.'
'You never talked in your delirium,' Aribert replied; 'at least not
about yourself. I knew about this projected loan before I saw you
in Ostend.'
'Who told you?' demanded Eugen fiercely.
'Then you admit that you are trying to raise a loan?'
'I admit nothing. Who told you?'
'Theodore Racksole, the millionaire. These rich men have no
secrets from each other. They form a coterie, closer than any
coterie of ours. Eugen, and far more powerful. They talk, and in
talking they rule the world, these millionaires. They are the real
monarchs.'
'Curse them!' said Eugen.
'Yes, perhaps so. But let me return to your case. Imagine my
shame, my disgust, when I found that Racksole could tell me more
about your affairs than I knew myself. Happily, he is a good
fellow; one can trust him; otherwise I should have been tempted to
do something desperate when I discovered that all your private
history was in his hands.
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