of
conversation to cover his anxiety. He had been approached that day by
the authorities with a proposal. The new Provisional Government was like
most governments of the kind, frock-coated, silk-hatted, kid-gloved
politicians with extensive vocabularies and limited business experience.
The agriculturists of the hinterland were in dire need of implements,
machinery, and fertilizers. What was needed was a responsible person or
syndicate who would act as purchasing agent, financing the operation
against the harvest. The Government proposed to authorize an issue of
half a million drachma to a duly constituted syndicate. It was an
alluring prospect. His friend Malleotis was in it, too, and thought it a
good thing. Mr. Dainopoulos, while he talked to Mr. Spokesly, was
developing the plan of campaign in his head. He was, so to speak,
flexing his mental sinews. His extremely financial brain was working,
and the more he considered it the more lucrative the thing appeared to
be. Malleotis had insisted on a two-year agreement as there might be
losses on the coming harvest. Long-headed man, Malleotis. Yes, yes,
hm....

Here is presented in moderate contrast the divergent temperaments of
Boris Dainopoulos, a man of business, and Mr. Reginald Spokesly, a man
of a type much more common than many people imagine. Mr. Spokesly had no
business ability whatever. It simply was not in him. His _metier_, when
he was fully awake, was simply watch-keeping, which is a blend of
vigilance, intelligence, and a flair for being about at the critical
moment. Out of this is born the faculty and the knack of commanding men,
which is a very different thing from bossing men in business. And so,
while his employer was already immersed in a new and fascinating deal
which might make him much richer than he had ever hoped in so short a
time, Mr. Spokesly had forgotten that money existed save as change for
the pocket, and was devoting the whole spiritual energy to the
contemplation of an affair of the heart. And this is a problem in which
ethics plays no part at all. The moralist has ever a tendency to applaud
the man diligent in business. But the business man is dependent upon the
emotionalist and the sensualist, too, for the success of his designs. As
has been pointed out by an authority the world is a stage and the men
and women players. Had he lived in later times he might have remarked
that the world is not quite so simple as that. There are business men