“No; on the contrary, I came here to help you, if you will permit me to do so. We are not playing quite a fair game,” added the director, with sudden frankness. “You are showing me your hand—I have scarcely given you a sight of mine. Suppose, I say unreservedly, I also have embarked more money in this venture than I should care to lose, we should then stand on more equal terms. You have advanced money to float the Company; I am a shareholder—a bona-fide shareholder, remember—to a large amount; I do not want our ship to go to the bottom, neither do you; Mr. Black, a very worthy individual, no doubt, has a knack of floating companies, and then sinking them. Now, it is not your interest, any more than it is mine, that this Company should fail; we want to see the shares at a premium, and to secure regularly-paid and satisfactory dividends. There is nothing to prevent such a desirable consummation, if the affairs of the Company be only properly managed. Now, if any nominee of your friend, Mr. Black, be appointed permanent secretary, there is no telling what the end of the matter may prove. Therefore, I offer you this secretaryship; say the word, and you shall have it. We will rent the Lincoln’s Inn premises from you; there is a good house there in which you might reside, and you would then be on the spot to look after your own interests, and those of your fellow-shareholders.”
Arthur wavered: the temptation was great, the salary sounded large, but he did not feel inclined so readily to turn his back on an old friend.
“If you had such an opinion of Mr. Black,” he said, “why did you ever go into this Company with him?”
“As for that,” answered Mr. Stewart, with a smile, “there is scarcely an undertaking of the kind which has not one black sheep at least in its ranks. Now, I am quite aware of the nature of Mr. Black’s weakness, and, you may recollect, it is stated to be better to have to do with a devil you know, than a devil you do not know. Further, Mr. Black is undeniably clever, and he has, equally undeniably, got hold of a good thing.”
“And yet you say, had I consulted you in the first instance, you would have advised me to keep clear of it!”
“On the terms—yes,” was Mr. Stewart’s reply. “Had Mr. Black come to you and said, ‘Here are a couple of hundred shares, paid up, which will qualify you to act as a director, let me have your name on our board in exchange,’ I should have recommended you to accept his offer, because, if the Company succeeded, there were the shares; if it failed, you had no liability; either way, you would have been safe. But when it comes to advancing money—even on the best security that Mr. Black could offer—the case is materially altered. I should not have counselled such a risk as that, Mr. Dudley, depend upon it!”
“Do you think Mr. Black will not repay me, then?” asked Arthur.
“I do not think Mr. Black can repay you,” amended Mr. Stewart; “with the best will in the world, I am confident that he has not the means of doing so at present. His other companies will swallow up every available sixpence he can scrape together for the next twelvemonth.”
“But I have my shares,” said the Squire.
“True; but paid-up shares are never of any real marketable value, unless all the shares are paid up.”