“Yet there must always be a little of it in business,” he said, with a smile creeping about the corners of his mouth.
“You think me old-fashioned in my notions, and with a woman’s incapacity to understand business; but in my day we managed to do very well without it,” Catherine said.
“To think of a woman’s incapacity for business in your presence would be silly indeed. I hope I am not such an ass as that,” said Edward, looking up at her with a smile. And she thought his look so kind and true, so full of affectionate filial admiration and trust, that Catherine’s keen perceptions were of no more use to her than the foolishness of any mother.
He returned to luncheon that day as if for the purpose of obliterating all disagreeable impressions, and it was on leaving the Grange to return to the bank that he met Hester and Emma. This confused and annoyed him for the moment. It was not so that he would have liked to meet the heroine of last night; and her unknown companion, and the highly inappropriate place of meeting, made the encounter still less to his taste. But when he had hurried on in advance he began to ask himself what was the meaning of Hester’s reluctance to walk with him, or even to speak to him, her attitude—drawing back even from his greeting, and the clouded look in her eyes. It was natural that he should not wish to speak to her at the door of the Grange, but why she should wish to avoid him he could not tell. It would have been a triumph over Catherine to have thus demonstrated her acquaintance with him at Catherine’s very door. So Edward thought, having only the vulgar conception of feminine enmity. On the whole, seeing that he had sowed the seeds of suspicion in Catherine’s bosom, it was better that Hester should hold him at arm’s length. Yet he was piqued by it. When he reached the bank, however, news awaited him, which turned his thoughts in a different channel. He found Harry Vernon and Algernon Merridew in great excitement in the room which was sacred to the former. Ashton had made the first coup on their behalf. He had bought in for them, at a fabulously low price, certain stock by which in a few weeks he was confident they might almost double their ventures. To furnish the details of this operation is beyond the writer’s power, but the three young men understood it, or thought they understood it. Of course a skilful buyer prowling about a crowded market with real money in his pocket, knowing what he wants, and what is profitable, will be likely to get his money’s worth, whether he is buying potatoes or stock.
“I saw it was very low,” said Merridew, “and wondered at the time if Ashton would be down upon it. I thought of writing to him, but on the whole I suppose it’s best not to cramp them in their operations. They ought to know their own business best.”
“They shell it out when there’s a good thing going, these fellows do,” said Harry, out of his moustache.
“And nobody has any money apparently,” Algernon said, with a laugh of pleasure, meaning to imply save you and me. “When money’s tight, that is the time to place a little with advantage,” he said with a profound air. “I think you should go in for it on a larger scale, you two fellows that have the command of the bank.”
“I wouldn’t risk too much at once,” Harry said.
Edward listened to their prattle with a contempt which almost reached the length of passion. To hear them talk as if they understood, or as if it mattered what they thought! His own brains were swelling with excitement. He knew that he could go a great deal further if he pleased, and that Harry’s share in the decision would be small. Dancing on the point of a needle over the bottomless pit! It was like an old woman’s insane objection to anything daring—anything out of the common way. Ashton’s letter to him was far longer and more detailed than his communications with the others. He said plainly that here was an opportunity for an operation really upon a grand scale, and that there could be no doubt of a dazzling success. “You will communicate just as much or as little of this as you think proper to the others,” Roland wrote, and it was all that Edward could do to keep up an appearance of replying to them, of joining in their gratification as he pondered this much more important proposal. “It is not once in a dozen years that such a chance arises,” Roland said.
Now Edward had nothing of his own to speak of, far less than the others, who each had a trifle of independent fortune. All that he could risk was the money of the bank. The profit, if profit there was, would be to the bank, and even that large increase of profit would have its drawbacks, for Catherine, who liked to know everything, would inquire into it, and in her opinion, success would be scarcely less dangerous than failure. He could not stop in the drab-coloured calm of the office where these two young idiots were congratulating each other, and trying to talk as if they knew all about it. His scorn of them was unspeakable. If they gained a hundred pounds their elation would be boundless. They were like boys sending out a little toy frigate and enchanted when it reached in safety the opposite side of the puddle. But Ashton meant business. It was not for this sort of trifling work that he had set himself to watch those
