Part 66 (2/2)
”Yes?”
”I've been following him up as well as I could ever since that day he called on me.”
”So you've told me before.”
”But a man was in my office this morning who knows him, who lives in Reboth, in fact, and who has watched him closely.”
”Well?”
”He says if he keeps on he'll be one of the most remarkable men in the State of Pennsylvania.”
”Indeed?”
”That's what he says. At the beginning, the financiers swarmed round him like bees. But he wasn't to be had. He just went his own way. Slow according to American notions, but that's the man. Level-headed as they make 'em, and honest to a fault.”
”A man can't be too honest, surely?”
”Well, business is so rushed in these days that a man has no time to look up the commandments before he decides. If he don't seize his chance on the dot it's gone.”
”Better the chance should go than that he should lose his honour.”
”Well, that is a very fine sentiment, no doubt--a very fine sentiment.
And your friend, it seems, acts up to it.”
”And what has he lost in consequence?”
”Heaps they say. Not permanently, perhaps; for as it happens, the iron is of better quality than was expected. But he might have made his pile right off without trouble or risk.”
”And without giving any honest _quid pro quo_?”
”Those who speculate must take their chance, my child. If people are willing to take risks, why let 'em. Suppose there had been no iron at all?”
”Well, what then?”
”Why, he would have been the poorer by hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
”That might not be to his disadvantage. 'A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesseth.'”
”Most people think it does, at any rate.”
”But you know majorities are nearly always wrong.”
”Excuse me, I claim no such knowledge. I know that majorities rule.”
”And rule oppressively frequently.”
”That may be so. Human nature is essentially tyrannical. Give a man power, and, without great grace, he becomes a tyrant right off.”
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