And they bowed to each other in the foreign way.
CHAPTER X. DEEPER WATER.
“Une bonne intention est une échelle trop courte.”
“I have had considerable experience in such matters, and I think I may say that the new financial scheme worked out by Mr. Roden and myself is a sound one,” Lord Ferriby was saying in his best manner.
He was addressing Major White, Tony Cornish, Von Holzen, and Percy Roden, convened to a meeting in the private salon occupied by the Ferribys at the Hotel of the Old Shooting Gallery, at The Hague.
The salon in question was at the front of the house on the first
floor, and therefore looked out upon the Toornoifeld, where the trees
were beginning to show a tender green, under the encouragement of a
treacherous April sun. Major White, seated bolt upright in his chair,
looked with a gentle surprise out of the window. He had so small an
opinion of his understanding that he usually begged explanatory persons
to excuse him. “No doubt you're quite right, but it's no use trying to
explain it to me, don't you know,” he was in the habit of saying, and
his attitude said no less at the present moment.
Von Holzen, with his chin in the palm of his hand, watched Lord
Ferriby's face with a greater attention than that transparent
physiognomy required. Roden's attention was fully occupied by the
papers on the table in front of him. He was seated by Lord Ferriby's
side, ready to prompt or assist, as behoved a merely mechanical
subordinate. Lord Ferriby, dimly conscious of this mental attitude, had
spoken Roden's name with considerable patronage, and with the evident
desire to give every man his due. Cornish, in his quick and superficial
way, glanced from one face to the other, taking in en passant any
object in the room that happened to call for a momentary attention. He
noted the passive and somewhat bovine surprise on White's face, and
wondered whether it owed its presence thereto astonishment at finding
himself taking part in a committee meeting or amazement at the
suggestion that Lord Ferriby should be capable of evolving any scheme,
financial or otherwise, out of his own brain. The committee thus
summoned was a fair sample of its kind. Here were a number of men
dividing a sense of responsibility among them so impartially that there
was not nearly enough of it to go round. In a multitude of councilors
there may be safety, but it is assuredly the councillors only who are
safe.
“The reasons,” continued Lord Ferriby, “why it is inexpedient to continue in our present position as mere trustees of a charitable fund are too numerous to go into at the present moment. Suffice it to say that there are many such reasons, and that I have satisfied myself of their soundness. Our chief desire is to ameliorate the condition of the malgamite workers. It must assuredly suggest itself to any one of us that the best method of doing this is to make the malgamite workers an independent corporation, bound together by the greatest of ties, a common interest.”