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Quiet and comfortable it was. Simple it was not. It Azras a Charles Addams
monster in a fabulous private park in Westchester. They rolled up its driveway
and parked next to what appeared to be a
1928 Rolls-Royce limousine.
Bliss Hubble was already at the door of then: car, holding it open for them.
"My wife," he explained, indicating the limousine. "She makes a fetish of
period decoration. Today it's Hoover, I see; last week it was Neo-Roman. Can't
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say I care for it, but one has one's obligations."
"And one has one's wife," said Norma Lavin, who appeared to be back to her
normal self.
"Oh, it's very nice," soothed Mundin. "So stately."
Mrs. Hubble greeted them with an unbelieving look. She turned to her husband
with an "explain-f/jw-
if-you-can" air.
Hubble said hastily, "My dear, may I present Miss Lavin  "
"Just Lavin," Norma said coldly.
"Of course. Lavin. And this is Mr. Mundin; I believe you know Harry and
George. Mr. Mundin was good enough to compliment the way youVe fixed up the
house."
"Indeed," said Mrs. Hubble, ice forming on her gaze. "Please thank Mr. Mundin,
and inform him that his taste is quite in agreement with that of our
housekeeper who is no longer with us, since I
woke up this morning and found she had set the house for this unsightly,
trashy piece of construction. Please mention to Mr. Mundin, too, that when she
left rapidly she took with her all the key settings, and as a con-
sequence I have been condemned to roam through these revolting rooms until my
husband chose to come home with his keys so that I might change them into
something more closely resembling a human habitation." Hubble stiffened,
thrust a hand into a pocket, brought out a set of keys. With them his wife
swept off through the vast, bare rooms.
"Sensitive," Hubble muttered to his guests.
Coett said eagerly, "We got a couple of things straight on the way over,
Mundin. Now  "
Hubble said severely, "Harry, I insist! I'm the host. Not another Word until
we've had dinner."
He led'tae way through a majestic corridor, keeping carefully to the middle.
At some unnoticed sign he said sharply, "Watch it!"
The others obediently stood clear of the walls, which were coming into
curious, shimmering motion.
"My wife," Hubble explained with a glassy smile. "You'd think a regular
bubble-house wall would be enough, but nol Nothing will do but full three-D
illusion throughout. The expense! The stumbling home in the dark! The waking
up in the middle of the night because the four-poster is changing
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r-at-Law%20v1.0.txt into a Hollywood bed! She's a light sleeper, you see  "
The walls had firmed up now; the old furniture was fully retracted, and new
pieces had formed.
Mrs. Hubble's present preference seemed to be Early Wardroom a satisfactory
enough style for the flying bridge of a cruiser, but not really Mundin's idea
of how to decorate a home. He withheld comment
The table talk was not sparkling; everyone was hungry. "Am I to understand,"
Hubble probed gently, "that Miss that Lavin, I mean, was actually abducted by
Mr. Arnold?"
"Doubt it very much," said Norma, chewing. "He probably just looked unhappy
and said something like, 'Dear me, I wish something could be done about that
stock.' Some foot-kisser standing by set the wheels in motion. Arnold's hands
would be clean. Not his fault if people insist on exceeding their authority."
She took another forkful of wild rice. "They had me for about a week. My God,
what confusion! I
could go and I couldn't go. I was free to leave any time I cared to, but
temporarily they thought it would be better to keep the door locked. Sign your
residuary legatee's share of the stock to us and we'll pay you a cool million.
But we don't want the stock, of course. It has only a certain small nuisance
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value. Now, lady, are you going to be reasonable or do we have to get tough?
My dear girl, we wouldn't dream of harming you!"
She scowled. "Arnold came to see me once. He kept pretending that / was trying
to sell to him. I
don't know, maybe that's what somebody told him. All I know is, I feel as
though someone hit me over the head with a lighthouse."
A butler shambled hi. "Are you at home to Mr. Arnold, sir?" he whispered.
"No!" crowed Hubble delightedly. "You hear that, Coett?"
Nelson cut in, "Hold it a minute, Bliss. Are you sure you're doing the right
thing? Maybe if the three of us got together  " he looked quickly at Mundin.
"That is, perhaps all of us could freeze out the Toledo bunch."
Coett said, "Tell him to go to blazes. Tell the butler to tell him, so we can
all hear it First we settle things among "ourselves then we figure who else we
have to cut in, if anybody. But I don't think we need anybody else."
"Tell him," Hubble said gleefully to the butler. "Fellows, if you knew how
long I'd waited  Well, all right. Harry's right, George. Figure it out.
You've got eleven per cent under your thumb, counting proxies for the voting
trust. I've got five and a half, solid. Harry has three of his own, and he
influences how many, Harry?"
"Nine," said Coett shortly.
"You see?" said Hubble. "That's plenty. With these people's twenty-five per
cent, we  "
Mundin came down heavily on Norma's foot just as she was opening her mouth to
ask how they had located the stock. He said rapidly, "Don't you think we
should save this till dinner's over?"
Hubble cast an eye around the table. "Why, dinner's over now," he said mildly.
"Let's have our coffee in the library." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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