"It took a bit of working, I can tell you. He's as slick as a rat."

"But he doesn't suspect anything wrong?"

"Hasn't the slightest idea of it, my dear Tommy. He fancies I'm going to marry his daughter. The fat old mother is already imagining herself mother-in-law of a British peer."

"Yes. All Rome knows that you've fallen in love with the pretty Velia, and that you've told her the tale. What a fellow you are with the ladies."

"Why?" he laughed taking a cigarette. "They are all very charming and delightful. But in my career I generally manage to make them useful.

It's really remarkable what a woman will do in the interests of the man whom she fancies is in love with her. Fortunately, perhaps, for me, I've only been in love once."

"And it resulted in a tragedy," remarked the Parson quietly, knowing that he referred to the Princess.

His Lordship sighed, flinging himself down in his armchair, worn out by long travel.

"My dear boy," he said with a weary sigh, "if I ever got married I'd soon go mothy--everybody does. Married people, whatever their position in life, settle down into the monotonous groove that is the death of all romance. Before a man marries a girl they have little dinners together at restaurants, and little suppers, and all seems so bright and gay under the red candle-shades. We see it on every hand. But why should it all be dropped for heavy meals and dulness, just because two people who like one another have the marriage service read over them?"

The Parson laughed. His friend was always amusing when he discussed the question of matrimony.

During the next four days his Lordship, in the character of Mr Tremlett--as he was known in certain circles in the City--was busy with financiers to whom he offered the concession. His story was that it had been granted by the Italian Government to his cousin, Lord Na.s.sington, and that the latter had given it into his hands to negotiate.

In the various quarters where he offered it the concession caused a flutter of excitement. The shrewdest men in the City saw that it was a good thing, and one after the other craved a day to think it over. It really was one of the best things that had been offered for a long time.

The terms required by the Italian Government were not at all heavy, and huge profits were certain to be made out of such a monopoly.

The great tracts of fertile land in central and southern Italy would, by means of motor-transport, be opened up to trade, while Tremlett's picturesque story of how the concession had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away from a strong group of German financiers was, to more than one capitalist, most fascinating.

Indeed he saw half a dozen of the most influential men in the City, and before a week was out he had got together a syndicate which could command a couple of millions sterling.

They were all of them shrewd men, however, and he saw that it behoved him to be on the alert. There is such a thing in the City as to be "frozen out" of a good thing, even when one holds it in one's hand.

By dint of close watching and clever observation, he discovered something, and this caused him to ponder deeply. The syndicate expressed themselves ready to treat, but for the present he was rather unwilling.

Some hitches occurred on technicalities, and there were a number of meetings to consider this point and that. By all this Mr Tremlett saw that he was losing time, and at the same moment he was not keeping faith with the old statesman concerning the amount to be paid into Madame's account in Paris. At last one morning, after the Parson had left for an unknown destination, he took a taxi-cab down to the City with a bold resolve.

The five prominent financiers were seated together in an office in Old Broad Street when Mr Tremlett, leaning back in his chair, said:

"Well, gentlemen, it seems that we are as far away as ever from coming to terms, and I think it useless to discuss the matter further. I must take the business elsewhere."

"We admit," exclaimed an old bald man, a director of one of London's largest banks, "that it is a good thing, but the price you ask is prohibitive."

"I can get it in Paris. So I shall go there," was Tremlett's prompt reply.

"Well," exclaimed the bald man, "let's get straight to facts. Your cousin, Lord Na.s.sington, wants sixty thousand pounds in cash for the concession and a percentage of shares, and that, we have decided, is far too much."

"Those are his figures," remarked Tremlett.

"Well, then all we can offer is one-half--thirty thousand in cash and ten per cent, of shares in the company," said the other, "and," he added, "I venture to say that ours is a very handsome offer." Tremlett rose from the table with a sarcastic smile.

"Let us talk of something else," he said. "I haven't come down here to the City to play at marbles."

"Well," asked the old man who was head of the syndicate. "What are your lowest terms?"

"I've stated them."

"But you don't give us time to inquire into the business," he complained.

"I have shown you the actual concession. Surely you are satisfied with it!"

"We are."

"And I've told you the conditions of the contract. Yet you postpone your decision from day to day!"

The five men glanced at each other, rather uneasily Tremlett thought.

"Well," he went on. "This is the last time I shall attend any meeting.

We come to a decision this morning, or the matter is off. You, gentlemen, don't even show _bona fides_!"

"Well, I think you know something of the standing of all of us," the banker said.

"That is so. But my cousin complains that he, having offered the concession, you on your part do not attempt to show your intention to take it up."

"But we do. We wish to fix a price to-day," remarked another of the men.

"A price, gentlemen, which is ridiculous," declared Tremlett.

The five men consulted together in undertones, and in the end advanced their offer five thousand pounds. At this Tremlett only shook his shoulders. A further five thousand was the result, and a long discussion followed.

"Have you your cousin's authority to accept terms?" asked one of the capitalists.

"I have."

"Then forty thousand is all we can offer."

Tremlett hesitated.

"I have a number of payments to make for bribery," he declared. "It will take half that sum."

"That does not concern us, my dear sir," said the bald-headed banker.

"We know that a concession such as this can only be obtained by the judicious application of palm-oil."

"But I must pay out nearly twenty thousand almost immediately," Tremlett said.

At this there was another long discussion, whereupon at last the bald-headed man said:

"If the payment of the bribes is imperative at once, we will, on consideration of the business being to-day concluded on a forty thousand pound basis, hand you over half the sum at once. That is our final decision."

Tremlett was not at all anxious. Indeed he took up his hat and cane, and was about to leave, when two of the men present exercising all their powers of persuasion, got him at last to reseat himself and to accept the sum of twenty thousand pounds down, and twenty thousand thirty days from that date, in addition to a percentage of shares in the company to be formed.

Memoranda were drawn up and signed by all parties, whereupon Tremlett took from his pocket the official concession and handed it to the head of the syndicate.