The old gentleman laughed.
“Let’s see,” he mused ruminatingly, “did we have lunch or not?”
“You consumed a sandwich which I placed on your desk, Mr. Hemster, and I bolted another during one of my rushes for the dispatch-boat.”
Again he laughed.
“I had forgotten,” he said, “but we will enjoy our dinner all the more when we sit down to it. Confess that you’re used up.”
“Well, sir, I don’t feel just as active as I did in the morning.”
The old gentleman shook his head with a slow motion that had something of pity in it.
“You English have no aptitude for business. It shows the decadent state of Europe that Britain has held supremacy on that continent for so long.”
“I should be sorry, sir, if you took me for a typical example of the English business man. I doubt if in any respect I am a credit to my country, still I am not such an idiot as to suppose I shine as a man of affairs. My training has been against me, even if I had any natural aptitude for commerce, which I doubt. Still, we are supposed to possess some creditable captains of industry on our little island.”
“Supposed! That’s just it, and the supposition holds good until they are up against something better. Now, if you were in Chicago, and you wished me to join you in a deal while I was cruising on the coast of Japan, what would you do?”