Kent nodded.

“That, of course; I should think less of you if you were not.  And you shall have as fair a show as you are giving me—­which is saying a lot.  Shall we go and smoke?”

XXI

A WOMAN INTERVENES

It was still early in the evening when Kent mounted the steps of the Brentwood apartment house.  Mother and daughters were all on the porch, but it was Mrs. Brentwood who welcomed him.

“We were just wondering if you would imagine the message which Elinor was going to send, and didn’t, and come out to see what was wanted,” she said.  “I am in need of a little legal advice.  Will you give me a few minutes in the library?”

Kent went with her obediently, but not without wondering why she had sent for him, of all the retainable lawyers in the capital.  And the wonder became amazement when she opened her confidence.  She had received two letters from a New York broker who offered to buy her railroad stock at a little more than the market price.  To the second letter she had replied, asking a price ten points higher than the market.  At this the broker had apparently dropped the attempted negotiation, since there had been no more letters.  What would Mr. Kent advise her to do—­write again?

Kent smiled inwardly at the good lady’s definition of “legal advice,” but he rose promptly to the occasion.  If he were in Mrs. Brentwood’s place, he would not write again; nor would he pay any attention whatever to any similar proposals from any source.  Had there been any others?

Mrs. Brentwood confessed that there had been; that a firm of Boston brokers had also written her.  Did Mr. Kent know the meaning of all this anxiety to buy in Western Pacific when the stock was going down day by day?

Kent took time for reflection before he answered.  It was exceedingly difficult to eliminate the personal factor in the equation.  If all went well, if by due process of law the Trans-Western should be rescued out of the hands of the wreckers, the property would be a long time recovering from the wounds inflicted by the cut rates and the Guilford bad management.  In consequence, any advance in the market value of the stock must be slow and uncertain under the skilfullest handling.  But, while it might be advisable for Mrs. Brentwood to take what she could get, the transfer of the three thousand shares at the critical moment might be the death blow to all his hopes in the fight for retrieval.

Happily, he hit upon the expedient of shifting the responsibility for the decision to other shoulders.

“I scarcely feel competent to advise you in a matter which is personal rather than legal,” he said at length.  “Have you talked it over with Mr. Ormsby?”

Mrs. Brentwood’s reply was openly contemptuous.

“Brookes Ormsby doesn’t know anything about dollars.  You have to express it in millions before he can grasp it.  He says for me not to sell at any price.”