Barry Pain

“ It was very sad for cotton-growers in Florida; it was also very sad for anyone who wanted cotton to go cheaper. But it was a long way off being sad for Marion and Stetsworth, who by a slip of memory had bought 100,000 bales the day before, and would have the pleasure of seeing the price go up like a rocket all day. Before the end of breakfast Charles had almost persuaded himself that this amazing piece of good fortune was due entirely to his own miraculous prescience. And he had quite made up his mind that that was the impression which Eustace should be led to take of it. ”

“ Marion and Stetsworth sold their quinine at eleven-pence. Charles became very despondent; he reduced his luncheon in the Commercial Sale Rooms to the most ascetic proportions, and said, with a sigh, whither he thought legitimate commerce had gone. And his younger brother Eustace reminded him that he had always said that quinine was rotten and there were too many weak "bulls" messing it about. I do not say that Eustace was not trying; he was the kind of man who would have made Job himself irritable. ”

“ And the Santos people (always regarded as a solid firm) replied that their heart was broken in three places, but they were not sending any margins. I am not giving the exact words of the cable, but that was the general drift. Nor will I give the exact words that Charles used when Marion and Stetsworth unloaded their holding on the market at twenty-eight. Eustace observed that he had never thought much of the Santos people and had said so; this would have been easier for Charles to bear if it had not been the absolute truth. ”