To arrange for the arrest of
important customers on preposterous charges of theft. To lock up a
hundred women in a gallery till they nearly died. To have my best and
most advertised bargains removed in the night. To deprive the
restaurants of food, and to employ women to turn them upside down. To
produce, as you contrived to do, a general air of pandemonium, and to
ruin the discipline of over three thousand of the best-trained employes
in England. All this, and much else which I do not mention, was devilish
clever in its conception, and the execution of it commands my
unqualified admiration. Especially having regard to the fact that you
contrived not to arouse my suspicions. I may tell you that certain
strange incidents which occurred in my establishment during the autumn
did indeed lead me vaguely to suspect that you were at work against me,
but you were sufficiently smart to put me off the track again. Let me
add that until this afternoon I did not perceive that your purchase of a
controlling share in the _Evening Herald_ was only a portion of a
mightier plan.'
'Really, Owen--'
'Don't waste your breath in denials. You will have none at all
presently, like Bentley.'
'Bentley?' repeated Ravengar, with a slight movement.
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