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No, they couldn’t; he wasn’t even Polish - or maybe he was - Abel didn’t even know his name and had never heard him speak
On the way back to the Stevens, Zaphia asked, with a flash of coquettishness he remembered, if it was considered safe to drive a motor car and hold a lady’s hand at the sa wheel for the rest of the drive back to the hotel
’Will you have time to see me tomorrow?’ he asked
’I hope so, Abel,’ she said ’Perhaps by then you’ll be my boss Good luck anyway’
He sh the back door, wondering how she would feel if she knew the real consequences of tomorrow’s decision He did not h the service entrance
’Assistantout loud as he cli what Curds Fenton’s neould bring in theto put Zaphia out of his mind as he threw his pillow on the floor
He woke a few minutes before five the next day The room was still dark when he called for the early edition of the Tribune, and went through thethe financial section He was dressed and ready for breakfast when the restaurant opened at seven o’clock Zaphia was not serving in the , but the pimply boyfriend hich Abel took to be a bad omen After breakfast he returned to his room; had he but known, only five minutes before Zaphia came on duty He checked his tie in the ain looked at his watch He estimated that if he walked very slowly, he would arrive at the bank as the doors were opening In fact, he arrived fiveaimlessly into store s at expensive jewellery and new radios and hand - tailored suits Would he ever be able to afford clothes like that? he wondered He arrived back at the bank at four minutes past nine
’Mr Fenton is not free at the moment Can you come back in half an hour or would you prefer to wait?’ the secretary asked
’I’ll co to appear overanxious
It was the longest thirty o He had studied every shopon La Salle Street, even the women’s clothes, which made him think happily of Zaphia
On his return to Continental Trust the secretary informed him, ’Mr
Fenton will see you now’
Abel walked into the bank
’Good , Mr Rosnovski Do have a seat’
Curtis Fenton took a file out of his desk which Abel could see had ’Confidential’ wri tten across the cover
’Now,’ he began, ’I hope you will findto go ahead with the purchase of the hotels on what I ran only describe as favourable terhty,’said Abel
Curtis Fenton pretended not to hear him and continued ’In fact,up the full two million required to clear Mr Leroy’s debt while at the same time he will form a new company with you in which the shares will be split sixty per cent to him and forty per cent to you Your forty per cent is therefore valued at eiuht hundred thousand dollars, which will be treated as a loan to you by the new company, a loan which will be made for a term not to exceed ten years, at four per cent, which can be paid off from the company profits at the same rate That is to say, if the company were to make in any one year a profit of one hundred thousand dollars, forty thousand of that profit would be set against your eight hundred thousand debt, plus the four per cent interest If you clear the loan of eight hundred thousand in under ten years you will be given the one - ti sixty per cent of the coive my client a first - class return on his investht
’In addition to this, you will receive a salary of three thousand dollars per annuive you complete day - to - day control of the hotels You will be asked to refer back tofinance I have been entrusted with the task of reporting direct to your principal, and he has asked me to represent his interests on the board of the neW Richmond Group I have been happy to comply with this stipulation My client does not wish to be involved personally As I have said before, there ht be a conflict of professional interests for hihly understand He also insists that you will at no tiive you fourteen days to consider his terotiation, as he considers, and Ia ain’