"I will buy two thousand
fully-paid shares of you, for cash down, NOT vendor's shares,
you observe--and then I will take your acknowledgment
that you hold them for me in trust up to a given date.
In that way, I would not at all weaken your market,
and I would have a stake in the game." "Your stake's
pretty big, already," commented Thorpe, tentatively.
"It's just a fancy of mine," said the other, with his
first smile. "I like to hold shares that are making
sensational advances. It is very exciting."
"All right," said Thorpe, in accents of resignation.
He wrote out two letters, accepting the wording which Semple
suggested from his perch on the desk, and then the latter,
hopping down, took the chair in turn and wrote a cheque.
"Do you want it open?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Are you going to get it cashed at once?"
"No--cross it," said the other. "I want it to go
through my bankers. It'll warm their hearts toward me.
I shan't be going till the end of the week, in any event.
I suppose you know the Continent by heart."
"On the contrary, very little indeed. I've had business
in Frankfort once, and in Rotterdam once, and in Paris twice.
That is all."
"But don't you ever do anything for pleasure?"
Thorpe asked him, as he folded the cheque in his pocket-book.
"Oh yes--many things," responded the broker, lightly.
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