It follows that we are wrong to buy." ("Hear, hear!" "No,
no!") "Pillins are shrewd people. What does the chairman say? Nerves!
Does he mean to tell us that this sale was the result of nerves?"
The chairman nodded.
"That appears to me a somewhat fantastic theory; but I will leave that
and confine myself to asking the grounds on which the chairman bases his
confidence; in fact, what it is which is actuating the Board in pressing
on us at such a time what I have no hesitation in stigmatising as a rash
proposal. In a word, I want light as well as leading in this matter."
Mr. Westgate sat down.
What would the chairman do now? The situation was distinctly
awkward--seeing his helplessness and the lukewarmness of the Board
behind him. And the secretary felt more strongly than ever the absurdity
of his being an underling, he who in a few well-chosen words could so
easily have twisted the meeting round his thumb. Suddenly he heard the
long, rumbling sigh which preluded the chairman's speeches.
"Has any other gentleman anything to say before I move the adoption of
the report?"
Phew! That would put their backs up. Yes, sure enough it had brought
that fellow, who had said he might as well go home, to his feet! Now for
something nasty!
"Mr.
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