Page:Braddon--Wyllard's weird.djvu/202

194 In front of the Madeleine Heathcote was overtaken by that good-natured merchant, Gustav Blümenlein, who had felt so much pleasure in showing his apartments to Mrs. Wyllard. They walked on together for a short distance, in the direction of the Blümenlein establishment, and Heathcote told the merchant of his predecessor's sudden illness.

Monsieur Blümenlein was interested and sympathetic, and as they were now in front of his office, he insisted upon Mr. Heathcote going in to smoke a cigarette, or share a bottle of Lafitte with him. Heathcote refused the Lafitte, but accepted the cigarette, not sorry to find an excuse for revisiting his rival's old abode. He blamed himself for this curiosity about Julian Wyllard's youth, as an unworthy and petty feeling: yet, he could not resist the temptation to gratify that curiosity which chance had thrown in his way.

They went through the offices, where clerks were working at their ledgers, and warehousemen hurrying in and out, and passed into the library—that handsome and somewhat luxurious apartment, which remained in all things, save the books upon the shelves, exactly as Julian Wyllard had left it.

"Did you know him twenty years ago?" asked Blümenlein, after they had talked of the late tenant, and his successful career in Paris.

"No, I never saw him till just before his marriage, about seven years ago."

"Ah, then you did not know him as a young man. I have a photograph of him in that drawer, yonder," pointing to a writing-table by the fireplace, "taken fifteen years ago, when he was beginning to make his fortune; when the Crédit Mauresque was at the height of its popularity. It went to smash afterwards, as, no doubt, you know; but Wyllard contrived to get out of it with clean hands—only just contrived."

"You mean to say that his part of the transaction was open to doubt?"

"My dear sir, on the Bourse, during the Empire, everything was, more or less, open to doubt. There were only two facts in the financial world of that time. There was a great deal of money made, and a great deal of money lost. Mr. Wyllard was a very clever man, and he contrived to be from first to last on the winning side. Nobody ever brought any charge of foul play against him; and, in this matter, he was luckier, or cleverer, than the majority of his compeers."

"I should like to see that photograph of which you spoke just now," said Heathcote.

"You shall see it. A clever face, a remarkable face, I take it," answered Blümenlein, unlocking a drawer, and producing a photograph.

Yes, it was a fine head, a powerful head, instinct with wondrous