“For the ‘Protector Bread and Flour Company,’” answered his lordship.
“Oh!” exclaimed Mr. Raidsford. Then, after a moment’s silence, he asked, “And what terms does he offer? I suppose there is no secret about the matter?”
“None that I am aware of,” was the reply; “at least, he made no mention of secrecy to me. He offered two hundred paid-up shares, and he showed me names he had got, that, I confess, made me hesitate about refusing. In fact, I meant to ask your advice. You know, every one goes in for these kind of things now-a-days, and some people must make money out of them.”
“Yes, but not people who are associated with Mr. Black,” replied Compton Raidsford.
“And yet he has got the name of one man who is considered unusually wary in his investments, Mr. Allan Stewart.”
“Allan Stewart,” repeated Mr. Raidsford; “now you do surprise me.” And he rode on for a while, turning the matter over in his mind.
“And he expects to get Douglas Croft.”
“The deuce he does!”
“So you see it is all in the family, at least in one branch of it,” continued his lordship.
“Ay, and if I were Lord Kemms, it might stay in one branch of it for me,” was the quick reply.