hink us
fast over here, and doubtless you are wrong; _we_ think _you_ slow over
there, and doubtless we are wrong. I don't think we're greedy. No man is
so lavish in his expenditure as an American, and no man more generous. A
greedy man does not spend money. Our motive power is interest in the
game."

"Yes; everyone has told me that, but I regard the phrase as an excuse,
not as a reason."

"Look here, Stranleigh, who's been looting you? What deal have you lost?
I warned you against mixing philanthropy with business, you remember."

Stranleigh threw back his head and laughed.

"There you have it. According to you a man cannot form an opinion that
is uninfluenced by his pocket. As a matter of fact, I have won all
along the line. I tried the game, as you call it, hoping to find it
interesting, but it doesn't seem to me worth while. I pocket the stakes,
and I am going home, in no way elated at my success, any more than I
should have been discouraged had I failed."

Leaning forward, Mr. Banks spoke as earnestly as the weather permitted.

"What you need, Stranleigh, is a doctor's advice, not a lawyer's. You
have been just a little too long in New York, and although New Yorkers
don't believe it, there are other parts of the country worthy of
consideration. Your talk, instead of being an indictment of life as you
find it, has been merely an exposition of your own ignorance, a sample
of that British insularity which we all deplore. I hope you don't mind
my stating the case as I see it?"

"Not at all," said Stranleigh. "I am delighted to hear your point of
view. Go on."

"Very well; here am I plugging away during this hot weather in this hot
city. Greed, says you."

"I say nothing of the kind," replied his lordship calmly. "I am merely
lost in admiration of a hard-working man, enduring the rigours of toil
in the most luxurious club of which I have ever been an honorary
member. Let me soften the asperities of labour by ordering something
with ice in it."

The good-natured attorney accepted the invitation, and then went on--

"We have a saying regarding any futile proposition to the effect that it
cuts no ice. This is the position of the Trust in which I am interested.
In this hot weather we cut no ice, but we sell it. Winter is a peaceable
season with us, and the harder the winter, the better we are pleased,
but summer is a time of trouble. It is a period of complaints and
law-suits, and our newspaper reading is most