The Grand Babylon Hotel - Arnold Bennett (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📗

confidently for the steak. She did not feel hungry, and she could afford to wait.

“Excuse me a moment, Nella,” said Theodore Racksole quietly, “I shall be back in about two seconds,” and he strode out of the salle-à-manger. No one in the room recognized the millionaire, for he was unknown to London, this being his first visit to Europe for over twenty years. Had anyone done so, and caught the expression on his face, that man might have trembled for an explosion which should have blown the entire Grand Babylon into the Thames.

Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the antagonist’s turn. A long and varied experience had taught Jules that a guest who embarks on the subjugation of a waiter is almost always lost; the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.

II How Mr. Racksole Obtained His Dinner

Nevertheless, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had long since fallen into that useful practice⁠—except when his only daughter Helen, motherless but high-spirited girl, chose to think that his way crossed hers, in which case Theodore capitulated and fell back. But when Theodore and his daughter happened to be going one and the same road, which was pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle that was so ill-advised as to stand in their path. Jules, great and observant man though he was, had not noticed the terrible projecting chins of both father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would have reconsidered the question of the steak and Bass.

Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel, and entered Miss Spencer’s sanctum.

“I want to see Mr. Babylon,” he said, “without the delay of an instant.”

Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.

“I am afraid⁠—” she began the usual formula. It was part of her daily duty to discourage guests who desired to see Mr. Babylon.

“No, no,” said Racksole quickly, “I don’t want any ‘I’m afraids.’ This is business. If you had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have slipped you a couple of sovereigns into your hand, and the thing would have been done. As you are not⁠—as you are obviously above bribes⁠—I merely say to you, I must see Mr. Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost urgency. My name is Racksole⁠—Theodore Racksole.”

“Of New York?” questioned a voice at the door, with a slight foreign accent.

The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short, French-looking man, with a bald head, a grey beard, a long and perfectly-built frock coat, eyeglasses attached to a minute silver chain, and blue eyes that seemed to have the transparent innocence of a maid’s.

“There is only one,” said Theodore Racksole succinctly.

“You wish to see me?” the newcomer suggested.

“You are Mr. Félix Babylon?”

The man bowed.

“At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the world,” said Racksole. “I am consumed and burnt up with a desire to see you, Mr. Babylon. I only want a few minutes’ quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my business in that time.”

With a gesture Mr. Babylon invited the millionaire down a side corridor, at the end of which was Mr. Babylon’s private room, a miracle of Louis XV furniture and tapestry: like most unmarried men with large incomes, Mr. Babylon had “tastes” of a highly expensive sort.

The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore Racksole had met with the usual millionaire’s luck in this adventure, for Mr. Babylon made a practice of not allowing himself to be interviewed by his guests, however distinguished, however wealthy, however pertinacious. If he had not chanced to enter Miss Spencer’s office at that precise moment, and if he had not been impressed in a somewhat peculiar way by the physiognomy of the millionaire, not all Mr. Racksole’s American energy and ingenuity would have availed for a confabulation with the owner of the Grand Babylon Hotel that night. Theodore Racksole, however, was ignorant that a mere accident had served him. He took all the credit to himself.

“I read in the New York papers some months ago,” Theodore started, without even a clearing of the throat, “that this hotel of yours, Mr. Babylon, was to be sold to a limited company, but it appears that the sale was not carried out.”

“It was not,” answered Mr. Babylon frankly, “and the reason was that the middlemen between the proposed company and myself wished to make a large secret profit, and I declined to be a party to such a profit. They were firm; I was firm; and so the affair came to nothing.”

“The agreed price was satisfactory?”

“Quite.”

“May I ask what the price was?”

“Are you a buyer, Mr. Racksole?”

“Are you a seller, Mr. Babylon?”

“I am,” said Babylon, “on terms. The price was four hundred thousand pounds, including the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell only on the condition that the buyer does not transfer the property to a limited company at a higher figure.”

“I will put one question to you, Mr. Babylon,” said the millionaire. “What have your profits averaged during the last four years?”

“Thirty-four thousand pounds per annum.”

“I buy,” said Theodore Racksole, smiling contentedly; “and we will, if you please, exchange contract-letters on the spot.”

“You come quickly to a resolution, Mr. Racksole. But perhaps you have been considering this question for a long time?”

“On the contrary,” Racksole looked at his watch, “I have been considering it for six minutes.”

Félix Babylon bowed, as one thoroughly accustomed to eccentricity of wealth.

“The beauty of being well-known,” Racksole continued, “is that you needn’t trouble about preliminary explanations. You, Mr. Babylon, probably know all about me. I know a good deal about you. We can take each other for granted without reference. Really, it is as simple to buy an hotel or a railroad as it is to buy a watch, provided one is equal to the transaction.”

“Precisely,” agreed Mr. Babylon smiling. “Shall we draw up the little informal contract? There are details to be thought of. But it occurs to