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“Before, as that, 1894?”

“Not too far before,” Irina said, her full lips parting in a ware”

“Forgive me,” Bell smiled back, satisfied that Grady Forrer — the brilliant head of Van Dorn Research, a large man in whose presence barroo of a tracker — would soon put the question to American embassy officers who had served in Russia when Czar Alexander III still reigned

“Tellpictures now that you’re running the whole show?”

“Will Ifor the sun for hours so I ative? Yes, very much Will I miss a banker who lentme that it would be better if I positioned it there, instead of there? No! Not one bit Now my only ‘boss’ is the Artists Syndicate, and they are three thousand miles away in New York”

“Who are the investors in the Artists Syndicate?”

“The syndicate is closely held I met none of them I don’t even know their names”

“Why do you suppose they are so secretive?”

“For two reasons,” she answered, with a laugh that did not conceal a certain discoht “They are probably respectable bankers who don’t want their wives, club brothers, and fellow progressive reforet, ht to be either risqué or tainted by sinful nickelodeon profits or careers that started in carnival shows and low-class vaudeville I am told that this is a uniquely American attitude, but I saw the same snobbishness in London”

“And the second reason?”

“The second reason is what I suspect is the real reason: fear As wealthy as they are, they are not as powerful as Thomas Edison They’re afraid that if Edison interests learn who they are, the Trust will fight back by shutting the pictures”

Bell eyed her closely There was so about the Russian woman he liked — a sense of decency, he supposed, and her liveliness And she certainly was easy on the eyes But he wondered, would she ever question the nature of the investors backing her drea a boss? Or would her ambition still her doubts?

“We have a proverb,” he said “‘She who sups with the devil should have a long spoon’”

Irina Viorets laughed it off “Russians have a proverb, too: ‘When the devil finds a lazy woman, he puts her to work’ I ad theet that we Russians also say, ‘God keeps her safe who keeps herself safe’”

Isaac Bell reckoned he ht have opened a chink in her armor Nonetheless, he would wire a second inquiry to Grady Forrer: