I only
arrived in London last night."
"But this morning?" Sarah asked him. "You don't mean to tell me that you
had strength of mind enough to keep away from the City?"
"I certainly do. I did not even telephone to my brokers. Kendrick here
knows that, for he is one of the firm."
"Then what did you do?" Sarah persisted, "I can't imagine you spending
your first morning in idleness."
"You might have called it idleness; I didn't," he answered, smiling. "I
had my hair cut and my nails manicured; I was measured for four new suits
of clothes, a certain number of shirts, and I bought some other
indispensable trifles."
"Dear me," Sarah murmured, "you aren't at all the sort of man I thought
you were!"
"Why not?"
"You don't seem energetic. I should have thought, even if you weren't
supposed to buy or sell, that you would have been all round the markets,
enquiring about B. & I.'s this morning."
"I read the papers instead," he replied. "One can learn a good deal from
the papers."
"You will find rather a partial Press where B. & I.'s are concerned,"
Kendrick observed.
"I have already noticed it," was the brief reply. "Still, even the Press
must live, I suppose."
"Cynic!" Sarah murmured.
"Might one ask, without being impertinent," Maurice White enquired,
addressing Wingate for the first time, "what is your real opinion
concerning the directors of the B.
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