you desert your bank and kill your horse galloping it all over the continent. I wonât speak of the worst outcomeâbut take the best case. Even if you find her safe and whole, youâll be bringing her home to Henry. Can you swallow that?â
âIf she wishes it.â
Small studied his friendâs face. âGiven the state of your feelings for her, you canât be serious.â
âYes, certainly, of courseâbut Crane is not above suspicion in all this. Why isnât he looking for her himself?â
âBusiness preoccupations, I would guess.â
Harris took this as a further instance of Smallâs contempt for sentiment. âYou be serious, Jasper. Any normally affectionate husband would leave his immense wealth to look after itself for a week.â
âNot so immense as all that. Have you not heard?â
Harris had not. He had got in the habit of paying no more attention to Craneâs activities than he could help. Crane took his business to the Commercial Bank, and their ways seldom crossed. References to Crane in the press were generally laudatory.
Railways he had built in the southwestern part of the province had, to be sure, suffered mishaps. Bridges had collapsed. Iron rails had split in the severe Canadian winter. Stoves had set fire to passenger coaches with fatal results. Deaths had resulted from the lack of gates at level crossings. By then, however, the customer had always paid and taken delivery of the line. Crane had fulfilled his contract and never seemed to come out the loser, not even in terms of reputation.
But Small knew more than was in the papers.
âHe has overreached himself,â the lawyer announced authoritatively. âHe has committed too much of his personalcapital to risky or long-term ventures.â
The Kingston to Cape Vincent railway car ferry was a case in point, said Smallâwho had sat at the same piquet table as the treasurerâs daughter. Loading trains on boats was to cost less than bridging the St. Lawrence. Wolfe Island did stand in the path of navigation, but Crane had allegedly taken up shares with both hands on the mistaken assumption that a canal across the obstructing land mass would soon be completed. Such miscues werenât like him. Nevertheless . . . Untypically, also, he had undertaken railway contracts east of Toronto for shares instead of bonds or cash. That meant higher construction standards and worries about rising costs.
âHis shrewdness has deserted him,â Small declared, âandâwhether cause or effectâheâs desperate for funds. There are even rumours that he has touched friends for loans.â
âNext youâll be telling me he has lost money at the race track,â said Harris. âHow long is he supposed to have been feeling the pinch?â
âA year,â said Small, âfourteen months. And he never bets on horsesâor drinks,
or
smokes,
or
swears. So much for the wages of virtue!â
Harris thought back to Tuesday. The exquisite carriage in which Crane had taken them to the graveside was so new that the ship that had brought it from England might still be in the harbour. A bold purchase. And yet the most distinguished mourners had seemed to avoid Crane as they would not have done if he still smelled of success.
âWhatever his difficulties,â said Harris, âhe should still be more concerned about his wife.â
Small smiled like a Buddha. Plainly, he thought Harris biased.
Harris was, of course. âAre they happy together?â he asked.
âLike any couple. I rarely see them together.â
âWhen did you last see Theresa?â
âFriday at her fatherâs. She had more or less moved down there from Queen Street East while he was ill. I was sitting in the old boyâs room, waiting for him to wake up from a nap,when she came in and shooed me out. She said I could tell the housekeeper to serve tea
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