E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ Her husband has spent the greater part of her fortune, flaunted his affairs with various actresses in the face of all London, shilly-shallied through the war as a recruiting officer, or any odd job that kept him safely at home, and now he openly associates with a little company of men in the City who are out to make money any old way they can get hold of it. If I were a man,” she went on, laying her he upon his, “I wouldn't let Josephine live out these best days of her life in sorrow. Do you know what I'd do, Mr. Wingate?” ”

“ Wingate assented. “You, Mr. Phipps, and Lord Dredlinton and your fellow directors have inaugurated and are carrying on a business, or enterprise, whichever you choose to call it, founded upon an utterly immoral and brutal basis. I have spent a considerable portion of my time since I arrived in England, studying the matter, and this is the conclusion at which I have come.”
“My dear Mr. Wingate, one moment,” Phipps intervened. “The magnitude of our operations in wheat has been immensely exaggerated. We are not abnormally large holders. There are a dozen firms in the market buying.” ”

“ Lady Amesbury said, as she stood surrounded by her guests on the hearth-rug of her drawing-room, “you know what my Sunday-night dinner-parties are—all sorts and plenty of them, and never a dull man or a plain woman if I can help it. To-night, I've got a new man. He's not much to look at, but they tell me he's a multimillionaire and making all the poor people of the country miserable. He's doing something about making bread dearer——”
“Heavens! You don't mean Peter Phipps?” Sarah exclaimed. ”

“ You hide your feelings from most people. Are you very angry with me for having guessed? I have, you know?
Wingate paused in the act of lighting a cigarette.
“What's that?”
“I think I have a sort of second sight in such matters, especially as regards people in whom I am interested,” Sarah continued, “and if there is one woman in this world whom I really adore, and for whom I am heartily sorry, it is Josephine Dredlinton.”
“She has a rotten time,” was Wingate's terse comment.
“Very few people know how rotten,” Sarah said. “She has lost nearly all her own relations in the war. ”

“ You are one of those damned frauds, Wingate who pose as a purist and make capital out of the harmless differences which sometimes arise between husband and wife. You sympathize with Lady Dredlinton, eh? ”

“ Phipps insisted. “I don't need to suggest to you, Dredlinton,” he went on, “what means you should use to make your wife obey you, but there are means, and if you're not the man to realize them, I'm very much surprised in you. I will begin with a concrete case. Your wife, together with that fellow Wilshaw and Miss Baldwin, has accepted an invitation from Wingate to dine and go to a theater to-morrow night. You must see that your wife does not go.” ”

“ Dredlinton interrupted. “You're a man of the world. You know that I can get a divorce, and I'm going to have it—if I want it. I am meeting Flossie at midday at my solicitor's. What have you got to say about that?”
“That if you keep your word, it will be a very happy release for your wife” Wingate replied dryly.
Dredlinton leaned across the desk.
“You are a fool,” he said. “My wife wants to get rid of me—you and she have talked that over, I have no doubt, but not this way. She is a proud woman, Wingate. ”

“ I am not talking at random. My wife was seen in your arms, in your rooms at the Milan Court, with her dressing-case on the table last night, by little Flossie Lane, your latest conquest in the musical-comedy world. She spent the night at the Milan”
“It's a lie!” Wingate declared, with cold fury. “How the devil could Flossie Lane see anything of the sort? She was nowhere near my rooms.”
“Oh, yes, she was,” Dredlinton assured him. “She just looked in—one look was quite enough. Didn't you hear the door slam?”
“My God!” Wingate muttered, with a sudden instinct of recollection. ”

“ It saves one from all those twinges one feels about sudden friendships, for you know, after all, in a way, nothing at Étaples counted. You were just the most charming of my patients, and the most interesting, but still a patient. Here, you simply walk into my life and take me by storm. You make a very foolish woman of me. ”

“ Sarah sighed.
“How much do you make a week out of your driving, if it isn't too personal a question?” he inquired.
“It depends upon how much Jimmy's got.”
“Is he your only client, then?”
“He very seldom gives me a chance of another. Once or twice I've refused to be engaged by the day, but he sends his man round to the garage, and I find him sitting in the cab when I arrive.” Wingate laughed softly. She looked up at him with twinkling eyes. “I believe you're making fun of my profession,” she complained. ”

“ He's a bad lot, but I tolerate him because I love his wife.”
Phipps scowled across the table to where Wingate's head was nearly touching Josephine's.
“Lady Dredlinton seems to be achieving great popularity in every direction,” he said sourly.
“And a jolly good thing, too,” Lady Amesbury declared. “If ever a woman earned the right to kick the traces away for a bit, Josephine has. Don't you mind anything I say, my dear,” she added as Josephine looked up at the sound of her name. “You settle down to a nice, comfortable flirtation if you want to. ”

“ I was at her hospital at Étaples.”
“Everyone says that she is charming,” the young lady continued, with a side glance at him. “Pity she can't keep that wicked husband of hers a little more under control. You know, Mr. Wingate,” she confided, “he has asked me to supper four or five times, but I have never cared about going with him quite alone. A girl has to be so careful in my position.”
“I suppose so,” he replied absently, for his eyes were fixed upon two men walking up the carpeted way from the restaurant. One was Peter Phipps, the other Lord Dredlinton. ”

“ Dredlinton sat a little more erect in his place.
“Look here, Phipps,” he said: “I don't care about this conversation. If a man happens to admire another man's wife, her husband is hardly the proper confidant.”
“Oh, yes; I know your theory,” Phipps scoffed. “You're willing enough to hide your head in the sand and take the goods the gods send you. ”

“ Wingate continued, “as only an ordinary, weak sort of scoundrel. I find you one of the filthiest blackguards who ever crawled upon the earth.”
Dredlinton scowled for a moment and then laughed.
“I can't lose my temper with you, Wingate—upon my word, I can't. You are so delightfully crude and refreshing. Shall I draft a little agreement that you will sell the shares to Phipps? Just a line or two will be sufficient.”
Wingate made no reply. He walked across to the frosted window and gazed out of the upper panes up to the sky. Presently he returned.
“Where is your wife?” he asked. ”

“ Phipps acknowledged, “but what's the odds? You're not a coward, Dredlinton; neither am I. Neither is Skinflint Martin, nor Stanley. Chuck letters like that on the fire, as they have, and keep cheerful. The streets of London are the safest place in the world. No cable from your friend in New York yet?”
“Not a word,” Dredlinton answered. “I expected it last night. You haven't forgotten that Wingate's due here this morning—that is, if he keeps his appointment?”
“Forgotten it? Not likely!” Phipps replied. “I was going to talk to you about that. We must have those shares. ”

“ Then she flashed a brilliant smile upon Wingate, ignored her husband and Phipps, and passed on.
“Cut!” Lord Dredlinton exclaimed, with mock dismay. “Cut, my friend Phipps! Me, her husband, and you, her dear friend! Really, it's a most uncomfortable thing to have a disapproving wife going about to the same restaurants and places. Let us go and sulk in a corner, Phipps, and leave this little comedy here to develop. ”

“ XVI Peter Phipps, in his private office, might have served as the very prototype of a genial, shrewd, and successful business man. The room was plainly and handsomely furnished. The documents which cumbered his desk were arranged in little methodical heaps. His manager stood by to his side, with a long slip of paper in his hand. The two men had been studying it together.
“A very excellently prepared document, Harrison,” his employer declared graciously. “Capitally prepared and lucid. A good many million bushels, that. We are creeping up, Harrison.” ”

“ He has a sentimental interest in the Countess of Dredlinton and has put her rotter husband on his directorate.
Wingate discovers that the countess is the girl he loved in France as “Sister Josephine.” Preparing to fight Phipps, he employs Andrew Slate, well known in the underworld.
At a supper-party, at which both Wingate and Phipps are present Dredlinton offers, as a drunken jest, to auction off his wife, Wingate drags him from the room. At the party, Wingate meets Flossie Lane, a musical-comedy actress, who shows an immediate interest in him. ”

“ Harrison was standing there, looking a little worried. His tone was almost apologetic.
“The Countess of Dredlinton,” he announced.
How will Wingate extricate Josephine and himself? His extraordinary scheme leads up to a climax in the next—and last—instalment of 'The Profiteers', in February Cosmopolitan, that will grip everyone—and that puts the lives of these live people in the greatest jeopardy. Mr. Oppenheim has never written a faster-moving story. ”

“ Jimmy exclaimed; “it's no use! There's a most infernal block down in the courtyard. Chap wanted me to push the taxi out into the street. It's cost me all the loose change I've got to stop his sending for a policeman. We'll have to do a scoot.”
Sarah sighed as her host arranged her cloak round her.
“Sorry we couldn't have stayed a little longer,” she said. “Mr. Wingate was just getting most interesting.”
“You'll have a drink before you go, Wilshaw?” Wingate insisted. “Say when.”
The young man accepted the whisky and soda and promptly disposed of it. ”

“ Dredlinton felt hope stir once more through his shocked and terrified senses. He leaned a little back in his place and stared at his companion curiously.
“Phipps,” he asked, “what the devil do you and Wingate see in my wife?”
“What a man like you would never look for,” was the harsh reply.
XV “Throw your coat down anywhere, Miss Baldwin,” Wingate invited, as he ushered that young lady into his rooms soon after eleven o'clock on the following evening. “Now, what can I give you? There are some sandwiches here—ham and pâté de foie gras, I think. Whisky and soda, or some hock?” ”

“ Dredlinton promised. “I'll manage it somehow.”
“See that you do,” Phipps enjoined earnestly. “Your wife is one of those misguided women with a strong sense of duty. Unless you behave like a fool, you can reestablish some measure of control over her. ”

“ Jimmy grunted. “By the bye, you have a few cigarettes, have you, for me to smoke while Sarah tries to get me safely home?”
Wingate held out the box.
“Fill your case,” he invited; “your pockets, too, if you like. Don't forget, both of you, luncheon at one-thirty to-morrow in the restaurant. Good-night.”
He stood with the door open, watching them down the corridor. Then he came slowly back into his room. Once more the telephone-bell began to ring. He picked up the receiver. Something amazing crept into his face.
“Who? ... Lady Dredlinton!” he exclaimed. “But where are you? ... Down-stairs? ”

“ And now some cushions,” he added, slipping them behind her. “The cigarettes are here, and I have some excellent hock. Just half a glass? Good! Miss Baldwin has been praising my sandwiches. You'll have one, won't you?” ”