He was not running a great enterprise there; no mere railway
board or industrial corporation. He was running a man! A success would
have pleased him very much on refreshingly novel grounds; but, on the
other side of the same feeling, it was incumbent upon him to cast it
off utterly at the first sign of failure. A man may be thrown off. The
papers had unfortunately trumpeted all over the land his journey to
Costaguana. If he was pleased at the way Charles Gould was going on, he
infused an added grimness into his assurances of support. Even at the
very last interview, half an hour or so before he rolled out of the
patio, hat in hand, behind Mrs. Gould's white mules, he had said in
Charles's room--
"You go ahead in your own way, and I shall know how to help you as long
as you hold your own. But you may rest assured that in a given case we
shall know how to drop you in time."
To this Charles Gould's only answer had been: "You may begin sending out
the machinery as soon as you like."
And the great man had liked this imperturbable assurance. The secret
of it was that to Charles Gould's mind these uncompromising terms were
agreeable.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142