‘Not much—maybe worse.’
‘It shall not be worse, for whatever I can gain by any labour or skill is yours.’
‘So?’ grunted Shield as he drank and stared at the man through clouds of smoke.
‘Yes, my course is plain,’ Philip went on deliberately; ‘we must sell the works and material for what they will fetch; they ought to fetch more than enough to clear off the debts.’
‘Well?’
‘I believed—and still believe—that if you had been able to make the necessary advances, we could have carried the scheme to a successful issue, notwithstanding my blunders. My first mistake was in beginning on too big a scale. That cannot be helped. Now we have to look the ruin straight in the face, and whatever work can do to make you feel your losses less, it shall be done.’
‘Don’t see how it’s to be done,’ muttered Shield, as if finding a difficulty somewhere.
‘We’ll try our best at anyrate; and you will believe, Mr Shield, that I should never have touched the money, if there had ever occurred to me a suspicion that you might some day feel the loss of it. You will remember that I always understood your wealth to be almost unlimited.’
‘My wealth never was, and isn’t likely to be. Been a mighty fall in diamonds lately.’
‘Well, I understood so.’ (The emphasis on the ‘my’ was not observed by Philip.) ‘However, I hope you agree to accept the only return I can make for all your kindness to me.’