Will You Love Me in September

"Never mind. You will. The Bank of England has entered into the bargaining and the two began to outbid each other. Now an offer has been accepted on the part of the South Sea Company to provide a sum of seven and a half million in order to buy up the annuities. The government annuitants are rushing to exchange their stock for that of the South Sea Company. Already two thirds of them have done so. There will obviously be enormous dividends. It's a way of getting rich in the shortest possible time. We have to get into this quickly, Clarissa.”

"Won't hundreds of people be saying that?”

"Of course they will. It's all so obvious. There will be a rush to get rich quickly.

We mustn't be left out. Already the fifty-pound shares are worth one hundred.”

"It seems incomprehensible to me. How can they be worth so much?”

"It's the prospects, my dear. They are saying there will be a dividend of fifty percent.

The thing is to buy cheaply and sell dear.”

"Surely everyone will have that idea?”

"But the thing is to know the right moment to buy and the right to sell.”

"And how can anyone be sure of that?”

He put his arms round me and hugged me tightly. "My dear, cautious Clarissa, you may trust your old Lancelot.”

I was silent, disturbed as I always was by his gambling exploits.

"But suppose it shouldn't work out as you think?”

"My dear, don't you think I shall know the right time to sell?”

"I would rather not have anything to do with such ventures." "What! And go on this way all our lives!" "It's a very comfortable way." 'And see all those around us making fortunes!”

"If some are making them, you can be sure some are losing them.”

"Leave it to me, my dearest.”

"Lance ... are you going to invest heavily in this South Seas Company?”

"Unless one does, there seems little point in it. And, Clarissa, I thought you would wish to share in it.”

"I?”

"Why not? You're a woman of substance.”

"I am not a gambler. I like things as they are. Besides, I couldn't touch my shares and things which Leigh manages for me.”

"Perhaps not. But there is the money your father left you.”

"Oh, no. I don't think I would touch that.”

He shrugged his shoulders and laughed at me. But he said no more about the matter.

He went out soon afterward and I did not see him for the rest of the day. We were dining alone that evening and during the meal he seemed abstracted.

I said, "I believe you are still dreaming of the fortune you are going to make out of this South Sea affair.”

"It's going to stagger you, Clarissa.”

"I do hope you have not invested a great deal.”

"Enough to make me rich, very rich.”

I shrugged my shoulders. "We have enough of everything. We can have what we want in reason. I cannot see why we want to clamor so desperately for more.”

"You wait, Clarissa, you are going to be as thrilled as I am when you see the fortune which will be ours.”

When we were in bed that night I sensed that he was restless. He could not sleep, nor could I.

Suddenly I felt his hand grasping mine.

"Are you awake, Clarissa?" he said.

"Yes. And I know you are. Oh, Lance, I don't like this thing. I have an uneasy feeling ..."

"You think it's a gamble. It is not. It's a certainty.”

"It doesn't make sense to me. Why should something one buys one day be suddenly worth a lot more the next? It hasn't changed its value, has it?”

"It is changed in value because so many people want it.”

"They want it because they believe it will make them rich overnight.”

"So it will.”

"But surely they can't all become so rich.”

"Oh, the shares will settle in time. That's what makes it wise to buy now. But it is the dividends the money will bring in which make it such an excellent venture.

Fifty percent. Just imagine that.”

"I don't understand it and I don't believe it's true.”

"You disbeliever!" He held me tightly and began to caress me. He told me how much he loved me and what a difference I had made to his life; how he had adored me from the time we had journeyed to York together; how jealous he had been of poor Dickon and how happy he was because he was going to spend the rest of his life with me.

Lance would always arouse a response in me. He was tender and gallant and fiercely passionate at the same time. I was happy, I told him. I wanted to please him for as long as we both should live.

I whispered an apology to Dickon as I invariably did at such moments. My encounter with him still stood out in my memory as something especially beautiful, but it was growing more and more like a dream as time passed, and it had more than a touch of unreality about it.

At length Lance whispered to me, "Clarissa, dearest, I couldn't leave you out of the excitement. You had to be in it. I wanted you to share ...”

My heart started to beat more quickly. "What?" I asked.

"I have bought for you. You had to be in it. Everyone who can must be in it.”

"What are you telling me?”

"That I have arranged for five thousand pounds of your Hessenfield inheritance to be put into the South Sea Company.”