"If you lay these matters down now," Carboner observed coldly, poking the fire with an old pair of tongs, "they will be glass. If you grasp them in a strong hand, they will become diamonds."
"If you grasp them in a strong hand, they will become diamonds."
But to take a woman's money! I thought for a moment—and then dismissed the scruple as swiftly as it had come. This woman was a good gambler!
"All right!" I exclaimed, drawing on my overcoat, which I had laid aside.
"Good! Don't worry about anything. Make your trees bear fruit. That is what you can do, young man." Old Carboner patted me on the back in a fatherly fashion. "Now we will have some coffee together. There is yet time."
The man who had opened the door for me brought in two cups of strong coffee, and I drank mine standing while Carboner sipped his and talked.
"This disturbance will be over soon," he said sagely. "Then we shall have such times of wealth and speculation as the world has never seen. Great things will be done in a few years, and you will do some of them. There are those who have confidence in you, my son. And confidence is worth many millions in gold."
He gave me his hand in dismissal.