Tears fell from him, two drops. He blinked, bugled in his throat, eyed his watch, and smiled: ‘The finishing glass! We should have had to put Colney to bed. Few men stand their wine. You and I are not lamed by it; we can drink and do business: my first experience in the City was, that the power to drink—keeping a sound head—conduces to the doing of business.’
‘It’s a pleasant way of instructing men to submit to their conqueror.’
‘If it doubles the energies, mind.’
‘Not if it fiddles inside. I confess to that effect upon me. I’ve a waltz going on, like the snake with the tail in his mouth, eternal; and it won’t allow of a thought upon Investments.’
‘Consult me to-morrow,’ said Mr. Radnor, somewhat pained for having inconsiderately misled the man he had hitherto helpfully guided. ‘You’ve looked at the warehouse?’
‘That’s performed.’
‘Make a practice of getting over as much of your business in the early morning as you well can.’
Mr. Radnor added hints of advice to a frail humanity he was indulgent, the giant spoke in good fellowship. It would have been to have strained his meaning, for purposes of sarcasm upon him, if one had taken him to boast of a personal exemption from our common weakness.
He stopped, and laughed: ‘Now I ‘m pumping my pulpit-eh? You come with us to Lakelands. I drive the ladies down to my office, ten A.M.: if it’s fine; train half-past. We take a basket. By the way, I had no letter from Dartrey last mail.’
‘He has buried his wife. It happens to some men.’