"What it would mean is that I should feel you trusted me, Uncle Lester, that you had faith in me. There's nothing so dangerous as a want of trust. Ask anybody. It saps a young man's character."
"Let it," said Mr. Carmody callously.
"If I went to London, I could see Ronnie Fish and explain all the circumstances about my not being able to go into that Hot Spot thing with him."
"You can do that by letter."
"It's so hard to put things properly in a letter."
"Then put them improperly," said Mr. Carmody. "Once and for all, you are not going to London."
He had started to turn away as the only means possible of concluding this interview, when he stopped, spellbound. For Hugo, as was his habit when matters had become difficult and required careful thought, was pulling out of his pocket a cigarette case.
"Goosh!" said Mr. Carmody, or something that sounded like that.
He made an involuntary motion with his hand, as a starving man will make toward bread: and Hugo, with a strong rush of emotion, realized that the happy ending had been achieved and that at the eleventh hour matters could at last be put on a satisfactory business basis.
"Turkish this side, Virginian that," he said. "You can have the lot for ten quid."