“You can make what inquiries you please about Squire Dudley,” went on Mr. Black; “indeed, the more inquiries you make, the better I shall be pleased. His position is perfectly unimpeachable. Excepting that he has not so much money as his friends could wish, I am not aware that there is a fault to be found with him or his surroundings.”
“For a man short of money, the purchase of a house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields was surely a venture,” remarked Mr. Stewart.
“He bought it, as I have said, on my advice,” answered Mr. Black, who could be brave on occasion; brave as well as self-asserting. “I thought, considering that with me originated the idea of this company; with me rested its very existence; on me devolved the organizing, carrying out, and perfecting of this scheme; I thought, I say, considering all these things, that when the concern came to be floated, a few of my suggestions would be received, and that I might do, at once, a good stroke of business for the company with which I was connected, and for the man who had stood by me and backed me up through thick and thin.”
“Your imagination outran your discretion, then,” remarked Mr. Stewart. “It is a dangerous thing for a man to try to benefit other people. Observe, the financial field has been reaped almost bare before he thinks of his acquaintances. You reaped and gleaned, Mr. Black, and then you wanted a second crop for your friend. We allow your claims, but the claims of your acquaintances and relations must go to the wall.”
“I will give up three hundred of my claim on the mills, Mr. Stewart, if you do not oppose the purchase of those premises in Lincoln’s Inn Fields,” said the promoter, earnestly.
“Then the affair is serious?” suggested Mr. Stewart.
“It is very serious,” answered Mr. Black. “Here is a man with property, worth, at the outside, ten thousand pounds, shall we say, and he advances money for advertising, and backs us up in every possible way with money, influence, connections. As a douceur for that, I advise him to buy that damned place in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, fully intending that he should receive a good price for it from our company; and now you come, Mr. Stewart, and put your foot in it; you come interfering, and meddling, and——”
“Mr. Black, do you know how many shares I hold in this company?” asked Mr. Stewart.
“A couple of hundred,” was the reply.
“Exactly two thousand,” answered Mr. Stewart, “and I mean them to repay me. They will not do so, as I said before, if we commence by making this company a refuge for the destitute; and although, no doubt, your friend Dudley is a delightful fellow and a confounded fool, still, with him I take my stand. Those premises may be rented if you will, but never purchased. Please to remember what I say, Mr. Black—never purchased.”