"I feel a good deal more upset about it than I thought I should," William said, after a long pause.
"Yes?" Ralph questioned.
"I fancy the spirit of adventure had got a bit into my blood," William answered, with a gentle smile. "I felt ready to speculate all I had. I was itching, as one may say, to be at the lode."
"Such an adventurous spirit needed checking," Ralph said, with a laugh that had more bitterness in it than mirth.
"Perhaps so. Now we shall have to face the whole problem over again."
"I shall try my fortune abroad. I made up my mind weeks ago that if this failed I should leave the country."
"Yes, yes. But it comes hard all the same. There ought to be as much room for enterprise in this country as in any other."
"Perhaps there is, but we are in the wrong corner of it."
"No, it isn't that. It is simply that we have to deal with the wrong people. I grow quite angry when I think how all enterprise is checked by the hidebound fossils who happen to be in authority, and the stupid laws they have enacted."
Ralph laughed.