“For my part,” ... he was about to tell them that for his part he thought that more was needed, when he suddenly remembered that he was hopelessly out of his depth, and putting on a look of firmness and reflection, he was silent.
Lord Benthorpe began:
“Still, so far as I can see ...” then he also remembered that he knew nothing at all about such things, and was silent in his turn, still preserving over his projecting teeth that wide, open, permanent and kindly smile, still twisting his refined and lengthy fingers.
Mr Harbury had already said: “After all, we shall only be out of our money for a few” ... when Mr Barnett interrupted, with his strong and ponderous voice.
When two such men begin talking together, there is usually a kind of battle to see which voice shall survive; but the relations between Mr Harbury and Mr Barnett were such, that Mr Harbury at once yielded, not without grace, and Mr Barnett, choosing his words, and speaking very slowly, taking care to make a “d” a “d,” and a “t” a “t,” and steering firmly past the “th,” rolled out:
“It must be a hundred thousand.”
Mr Harbury said that the Magnetic syndicate, if he remembered rightly, had subscribed something of the same kind during the Greenland excitement. Mr Burden, who had read all about the Greenland excitement in the papers, exclaimed: “What a time that was!” Mr Harbury then added that there were infinite possibilities all across the north of Canada, and especially on the lower Snake river.
Lord Benthorpe told, at somewhat too great a length, a story about his cousin, Charlie Corne, who had gone shooting up there. Mr Harbury listened with great interest, and remarked that it was nothing to the Big Moose country; and that led him to speak about the fishing there, and that to the harbour, and that to the dispute with Russia.
For close upon an hour their speech turned thus upon those things wherein a conquering race delights; and if I have painted the scene of their first meeting at so great a length, and in such detail, it is but due to my desire that every member of this race, who may read these pages, shall know in what an atmosphere the crucial decisions of their history are decided.
