"All—what?"
"Hotsy-totsy. It seemed to me that I was absolutely hotsy-totsy."
"And what has caused you to revise this opinion?"
"Why, I met a man the other day who said these shares weren't worth a bean. I've got 'em here. Take a look at them."
Hamilton Beamish scrutinised the documents with distaste.
"The man was right," he said. "When you first mentioned the name of the company, it seemed familiar. I now recall why. Mrs. Henrietta Byng Masterson, the president of the Great Neck Social and Literary Society, was speaking to me of it last night. She also had bought shares and mentioned the fact with regret. I should say at a venture that these of yours are worth possibly ten dollars."
"I gave fifty thousand for them."
"Then your books will show a loss of forty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety. I am sorry."
"But what am I to do?"
"Write it off to experience."