se you not to take it too seriously.
Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
till Sir Adolphus has tested it."

We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
out the less was he likely to lose by it.

Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.

All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
the panic."

All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
restore public confidence.

"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
own a