The three glass eyes

_Many readers of newspapers who have been accustomed to follow the reports of those magnificent proceedings of Ventris Blake, the noted American financier, in London, may be surprised to find so vivid a searchlight as the following thrown on the private life of a millionaire who, in his time, has made several British industries tremble._

_Most public men, however, have two, if not more, selves--the self they shew to the world at large, which is generally fair and clean to look upon, and the self which in secret they hide from their best friends, and, if possible, keep out of their tell-tale features._

_It is, therefore, good sometimes for the public to get away from the phantasmagoria of a princely residence in Park Lane and the brilliant evolution of the descriptive reporter, and, in the privacy of their own rooms, to take as it were, one of these creatures of Fortune to pieces--to see the stuff he is made of, to follow the effect of wealth upon his humanity, and to learn whether the beautiful principles he espouses with so much unwelcome vocal violence in the open are really in use in his every-day existence, or, are like the carpet he rolls across the pavement when giving some stately dinner party--often on show, but seldom trodden on!_

_This, of course, in another sense, is only a simple love story--the story of Winifred Pontifex and of her mysterious vicissitudes, temptations and dangers, but in as much as it unmasks men of the stamp of Ventris Blake it must always stand for something more than fiction, and may well serve to explore but little-known regions of crooked London life. Some cynics assert that every man has a skeleton in his cupboard. Certainly Ventris Blake had--and hence this narrative of “The Three Glass Eyes_.”

WILLIAM LE QUEUX.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. WHICH RECORDS AN ODD TRANSACTION CHAPTER II. CONCERNS A MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE CHAPTER III. REVEALS A SECRET CHAPTER IV. EXPLAINS WHAT VERA LEARNED CHAPTER V. RECORDS THE APPEARANCE OF THREE GLASS EYES CHAPTER VI. CONCERNS THE HOLE IN THE WALL CHAPTER VII. RECOUNTS A STRANGE SCENE IN CHURCH CHAPTER VIII. WHICH TELLS OF AN EVENTFUL NIGHT CHAPTER IX. WHY THEY WORE A DISGUISE CHAPTER X. WHEREIN VENTRIS BLAKE FAILS CHAPTER XI. AGAIN--IN PARK LANE CHAPTER XII. WHAT THE SERGEANT KNEW CHAPTER XIII. CERTAIN LOVE LETTERS CHAPTER XIV. TURNS ON THE LETTER “K” CHAPTER XV. RECOUNTS PAUL’S DEFEAT CHAPTER XVI. “OH! GREAT IS THE POWER OF WEALTH!” CHAPTER XVII. THE STRANGE HOUSE AT SCALBY CHAPTER XVIII. ALL ABOUT THOSE GLASS EYES CHAPTER XIX. THE PARTING OF THE CLOUDS CONCLUSION

THE THREE GLASS EYES

CHAPTER I. WHICH RECORDS AN ODD TRANSACTION

“That strange-looking gentleman has called again, sir. He will not be put off with any excuse. What had I better say to him?”

Arthur Hudson, who had been busily writing at his desk in his solidly-furnished office in Cheapside, looked up, a slight expression of annoyance on his handsome clear-cut features. The clerk who had thus addressed him, a slight, middle-aged man of fifty, with a bald head, and grey moustache, and a nervous, furtive manner, coughed, and began to move his feet uneasily, for he knew he had exceeded his instructions.

“This isn’t business, Perkins,” his employer answered impatiently, laying down his pen and rising from his chair. “Don’t you see it only wants a few minutes to post-time, and I’ve not finished my letter?”

“Yes, sir,” said Perkins submissively, “but he would not take any refusal. He is so persistent; he kind of compelled me to come to you, and to ask you whether you would not see him.”

Hudson looked at the weak vapid chin and watery blue eyes of his inquiry clerk, and unconsciously sighed. He could well understand any man of strong resolute pulse making Perkins, even against his feeble flabby nature, do something which he had been distinctly ordered by his superior to refuse.