FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66  
67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   >>   >|  
er was looking at me inquiringly. "I'm not a business man," I said, "and I'm afraid that my opinion isn't worth much, but I think----" I hesitated. Ascher's eyes were fixed on me, and there was a curiously wistful expression in them. I could not understand what he wanted me to say. "I think," I said, "that Gorman's plan sounds feasible, that it ought to work." "But your own opinion of it?" said Ascher. He spoke with a certain gentle insistency. I could not very well avoid making some answer. "We are able to judge for ourselves," he said, "whether it will work. But the plan itself--what do you think of it?" "Well," I said, "I'm a modern man. I have accepted all the ideas and standards of my time and generation. I can hardly give you an opinion that I could call my own, but if my father's opinion would be of any use to you---- He was an old-fashioned gentleman, with all the rather obsolete ideas about honour which those people had." "He's dead, isn't he?" said Gorman. "Oh, yes," I said. "He's been dead for fifteen years. Still I'm sure I could tell you what he'd have said about this." "I do not think," said Stutz, "that we need consider the opinion of Sir James Digby's father, who has been dead for fifteen years." "I quite agree with you," I said. "It would be out of date, hopelessly." "But your own opinion?" said Ascher, still mildly insistent. "Well," I said, "I've been robbed of my property--land in Ireland, Mr. Stutz--by Gorman and his friends. Everybody says that they were quite right and that I ought not to have objected; so I suppose robbery must be a proper thing according to our contemporary ethics." "And that is your opinion of the scheme?" said Ascher. "Yes," I said. "I hope I've made myself clear. I think we are justified in pillaging when we can." "You Irish," said Ascher, "with your intellects of steel, your delight in paradox and your reckless logic!" Stutz was not interested in the peculiarities of the Irish mind. He went back to the main point with a directness which I admired. "This is not," he said, "the kind of business we care to do." "Mr. Gorman," said Ascher, "we shall wait for Mr. Mildmay's report on your brother's invention. If it turns out to be favourable, as I confidently expect, we may have a proposal to lay before you. Our firm cannot, you will understand, take shares in your company. That is not a bank's business. But I myself, in my private capacit
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66  
67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

opinion

 

Ascher

 

Gorman

 
business
 

father

 
understand
 

fifteen

 

justified

 
pillaging
 
proper

objected

 

Everybody

 
Ireland
 
friends
 
suppose
 

robbery

 

ethics

 

scheme

 

contemporary

 
directness

expect

 
proposal
 

confidently

 

invention

 

favourable

 

private

 
capacit
 
company
 

shares

 

brother


report

 

interested

 

peculiarities

 

reckless

 

delight

 

paradox

 

Mildmay

 
admired
 

intellects

 

people


making
 

gentle

 
insistency
 
answer
 
modern
 

accepted

 

standards

 
feasible
 
hesitated
 

afraid