“I see! I see! Good!” He arose and, unable to contain himself, extended his hand and said: “Mr. Grinnell, I am certain you are a great man. I am proud to have your confidence. Bye-and-bye, when it does no harm, you will tell me all, and I shall see if I am right?”
“Some day we shall both see whether we are right or not,” said Grinnell composedly.
“Yes, yes. Now answer me: Do you find that great wealth is also a great temptation?”
“I do not,” answered Grinnell frankly.
“There are many things you would not do for money if you were penniless, much less would you do them, having fifty or a hundred millions. Is it not so?”
“There are many things I should like to do if I had a thousand millions,” said Grinnell, very earnestly.
“Precisely. That’s what you told them. Ah, William Mellen! William Mellen!” and the little old man shook his head and raised his hands ceilingward, as though he saw the richest man in the world there and were apostrophizing him. “You have imagination, but only one pair of eyes. I see!”
“You know him?” Grinnell asked.
The Hebrew banker, at this question, instantly became merely a banker. He said, briskly: “If bonds are too low, stocks are too high; much too high. It would be well to sell some to those wise rich men who wish to buy them; for the public is not buying stocks. Only the rich can buy—and suffer, it may be, eh, Mr. Grinnell?”
“I shall be glad to join you in such an operation, Mr. Herzog.”