Chapter 10 #2
“Or a butterfly, I couldn’t say for sure. Something that lays eggs that turn into caterpillars. He knew the Latin name right off. Me, I like a guy with a real good grasp of his subject, even if it’s just bugs. That’s one of the things I like about young Petrie.”
“Really?” Daisy didn’t want to queer Phillip’s pitch, but if Arbuckle was labouring under the delusion that he was a stock market wizard, it might be better to disillusion him before it was too late. “Actually, I don’t think he’s frightfully keen on stocks and shares,” she said with caution.
“Jeez no! I wouldn’t trust him to buy me a hundred bucks worth of blue chips! That’s my line. It’s carburetors and radiators I’m talking about. Petrie has a real good practical knowhow when it comes the innards of an automobile—considering all his disadvantages.”
“Disadvantages?” Daisy queried still more cautiously, wondering what a blue chip was.
“That swank family of his that thinks it’s beneath a lord’s son to meddle with mechanics,” said Arbuckle with considerable heat. “Pardon me, ma’am, I guess I shouldn’t talk that way to a lord’s daughter.”
“No, it’s all right. My mother feels the same way about my writing, or working at all. As a matter of fact, Phillip told me just the other day that he wants to leave the City and have a go at something to do with motors. Anything to do with motors.”
“Does he now? That’s real interesting! I’m sure glad you told me that, Miss Dalrymple. Say, listen, I’ve been wanting to ask you something. I know you’re a mighty good friend of young Phillip’s and I hope you won’t take offence if I’ve gotten hold of the wrong darned end of the stick.”
“Ask away,” said Daisy, dying of curiosity and throwing caution to the winds. “I shan’t take offence and I’ll answer if I can.”
Arbuckle patted her hand. “It’s like this, see. It seems to me Petrie’s taken a shine to my girl. You don’t mind?” he asked anxiously.
“Phillip and I are friends,” she assured him, “practically since our cradles.”
“Waal, that’s a relief, I don’t mind telling you.
I wouldn’t want Gloria pinching your boyfriend, specially now I’ve met you.
Now, I’ve been a mite puzzled, not knowing just how things are done in your country, and not being able to ask the boy.
Just let me ask you this: Him inviting Gloria and me to meet his folks this weekend, does that mean he’s decided he wants to get hitched? ”
“It does. You wouldn’t mind your daughter marrying into a ‘swank’ family?”
“Miss Dalrymple,” Arbuckle said passionately, “if I get my girl back safe and sound, she can marry the local ditch-digger if that’s what she wants.”
“Or the local motor mechanic?” Daisy asked. “Phillip said he’d mentioned he’s not in line for the title or estate, and a very modest allowance is all he can expect from his family.”
“Heck, if Honourable’s good enough for Gloria, it’s good enough for me, and even with the ransom paid, I’ve enough to support them in style. But it’s my impression of the boy—correct me here if I’m wrong—that he’d rather earn his keep.”
“He told me he hoped you’d find him a technical job, if Miss Arbuckle accepted him.”
“If and when he marries Gloria, my notion is to make him my technical adviser.”
“That would suit Phillip down to the ground!” Daisy knit her brows, struck by a sudden thought. “But what about the chap who advises you now? He’d be out of a job. Could he have foreseen it?”
“Don’t you worry about him, Miss Dalrymple. I’d never fire a trusted longtime employee for no fault of his own. Crawford’s been with me ten years, and I’ve him to thank for a good part of what I own today. It’ll be easy enough to find him something else to do for the same salary.”
Daisy pursued her thought. “What about people you’ve sacked for good cause? Phillip told me you haven’t any enemies, but I should think you must have made one or two.”
Arbuckle cast a shamefaced glance at Phillip, who was patiently submitting to one of Edgar’s lectures on the far side of the room.
A fortuitous lull in everyone else’s conversations allowed his lordship’s wistful words to float across.
“The other evening I nearly captured a small elephant. Pink, you know, with some yellow, and really quite pretty.”
Noticing Arbuckle’s scandalized face, Daisy said, “It’s all right, Edgar isn’t a dipsomaniac. I’m sure it’s another moth or butterfly.”
“Oh, sure. By golly, he had me worried for a minute there. Though come to think of it, why shouldn’t a lord be a lush same as any other guy?
Well, like you were saying, ma’am, I haven’t got where I am without making an enemy or two.
I guess I didn’t want Petrie to think Gloria’s poppa was the kinda guy to go round treading on people’s toes for kicks. ”
“Are you?” Daisy ventured to ask.
“I am not,” he said emphatically. “But there’s guys have it in for me because I fired ’em, like you guessed, or because I beat ’em to a bargain, or because I wouldn’t invest and they went bust, or … heck, you get the picture.”
She nodded. “I wondered why you were concerned about Miss Arbuckle’s safety when you said American kidnappers know it’s good business to keep their promises.
No one would pay ransom if they killed their victims even when the families obey instructions to the letter. But if it’s a matter of revenge…”
“If it’s a matter of revenge,” said Arbuckle in a hollow voice, “it’s anyone’s guess what they might do to my little girl.”