Page:Tom Beauling (1901).pdf/195

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in a position to step cheerfully in, buy everything in sight, and simply wait. This he did. In two days the fighting factions came to terms. In a week the level of prices was again high. Mr. Dunbar spent a week unloading. Then, about eleven o'clock one morning, feeling very much at peace with the whole world, he retreated to his emergency suite, sweated in the squash court for half an hour, showered, dressed, commanded luncheon for three, and went into the library to write a note.

Dearest Lady: I look at my holdings, and the luck of recent years, and believe that I am the richest man in the world. I think of you, and know that I am.

J. D.

This he sent by a clerk to Mrs. Dunbar in the country. Then he was waited on by a courtly, white-haired gentleman representing a famous firm of jewelers uptown. The gentleman was accompanied by a bony, grim-visaged clerk who car-