"Your business with the Macdermott Realty Company?" I inquired.
Maitland Tait looked at me with an amused smile.
"What do you know about that?" he asked.
"Nothing except what all the world knows!"
I managed to inject some hurt feeling into my voice, as if I had a right to know more, which in truth I felt.
"And how much does the world know?"
"Merely that you've either planned to shut down this plant here and move the whole business to Birmingham, or you've bought up acres and acres more of Oldburgh's suburbs and will make this spot so important and permanent that the company's grandchildren will have to call it home."
"But you—you don't know which I've done, eh?"
I shook my head.
"Then shall I tell you? Are you interested?"