Part 75 (1/2)
”How much did he buy?”
”Mexican loan, fifty thousand; Guatemala, fifty thousand; and Venezuela bonds, fifty thousand”
”He is quite lavish”
”Oh, quite That makes it so pleasant to do business with him”
”Did you advance the money for this?”
”He did not ask it He raised the ht them from the broker The broker was of course myself The beauty of all this is, that I send applicants for ives his notes toit back to me
It's odd, isn't it?”
Louis smiled
”Has he no _bona fide_ debtors in his own county?”
”Oh yes, plenty of them; but more than half of his advances have beennotes?”
”Oh yes, and the bait took wonderfully He made his bank a bank of issue at once, and sent out a hundred and fifty thousand pounds in notes I think it was in this way that he got the money for all that American stock At any rate, it helped hiold in his vaults, you may very readily conjecture his peculiar position”
Louis was silent for a tied admirably, Frank,” said he at last
”Oh,” rejoined Frank, ”Potts is very s with hiler that he does whatever one wishes There is not even excitement Whatever I tell him to do he does Now if I were anxious to crush the Rothschilds, it would be very different There would then be a chance for skill”
”You have had the chance”
”I did not wish to ruin them,” said Frank ”Too many innocent people would have suffered I only wished to alarm them I rather think, from what I hear, that they were a little disturbed on that day when they had to pay four millions Yet I could have crushed thes so as to let theenani that I would not press for payood tocould have saved them But I did not wish that The fact is they have locked up their means very much, and have been rather careless of late They have learned a lesson now”
Louis relapsed into his reflections, and Frank began to answer his letters
CHAPTER xxxVII
THE ”PROMETHEUS”
It took sohetti to make his preparations in London
September caements were much easier than he had supposed People caht it possible that they could have heard of his project What er of Covent Garden Theatre, who offered to put it into his hands for a price so low as to surprise Langhettielse that had occurred Of course he accepted the offer gratefully and eagerly Thewas on his hands, and he did not wish to use it for the present, for which reason he would be glad to turn it over to him He remarked also that there was very much stock in the theatre that could be hetti went to see it, and found a large nunificently painted scenes, which could be used in his piece On asking the er how scenes of this sort ca the ”Midsuhetti'son this experireatly in his favor
Another circumstance which was equally in his favor, if not more so, was the kind consideration of the London papers They announced his forthcoain Soet the particulars, and what little he told them they described in the e number of people presented themselves to form his company, and he also received applications by letter from many whose eminence and fortunes placed the It was sihly understood the ways of the musical world; yet since they offered he was only too happy to accept
On having intervieith these persons he was amazed to find that they were one and all totally indifferent about terms; they all assured him that they were ready to take any part whatever, and merely wished to assist in the representation of a piece so new and so original as his was said to be They all named a price which was excessively low, and assured hi to accept any thing hetti either to take them on their own terms or to reject them He, of course, could not reject aid so powerful and so unexpected