“Don’t pay any dividend the second half-year, and the shares remain upon the buyer’s hands. No one will take them at any price.”
“Oh, this is all stuff and nonsense, Mr Saxby!” cried Aunt Sophia angrily.
“Not a bit of it, ma’am,” cried the stockbroker firmly.
“But I say it is!” cried Aunt Sophia, with a stamp of her foot. “I had set my mind upon having those shares.”
“And I had set my mind upon stopping you, ma’am. That’s why I got up at six o’clock this morning and came down.”
“Mr Saxby!”
“No use for you to be cross ma’am. Fighting against my own interest in the present; but while I have your business to transact, ma’am, I won’t see your little fortune frittered away.”
“Mr Saxby!” exclaimed Aunt Sophia again.
“I can’t help it, ma’am; and of course you are perfectly at liberty to take your business elsewhere. I want to make all I can out of you by commission and brokerage, etcetera; but I never allow a client of mine to go headlong, and run himself, or herself, down a Cornish mine, without trying to skid the wheels.”
“You forget that you are addressing ladies, Mr Saxby.”