We have manufactured a malgamite
which has been well received by the paper-makers. We have, furthermore,
been able to supply at the current rate without any serious loss. We
are increasing our plant, and the day is not so far distant when we
may, at all events, hope to be self-supporting."
Lord Ferriby sat up and pulled down his waistcoat, a sure signal that
the fountain of his garrulous inspiration was for the moment dried up.
With great presence of mind Tony Cornish interposed a question which
only Roden could answer, and after the consideration of some
statistics, the proceedings terminated. It had been apparent all
through that Percy Roden was the only business man of the party.
In any question of figures or statistics his colleagues showed plainly
that they were at sea. Lord Ferriby had in early life been managed by
a thrifty mother, who had in due course married him to a thrifty wife.
Tony Cornish's business affairs had been narrowed down to the financial
fiasco of a tailor's bill far beyond his facilities. Major White had,
in his subaltern days, been despatched from Gibraltar on a business
quest into the interior of Spain to buy mules there for his Queen and
country. He fell out with a dealer at Ronda, whom he knocked down, and
returned to Gibraltar branded as unbusiness-like and hasty, and there
his commercial enterprise had terminated. Von Holzen was only a
scientist, a fact of which he assured his colleagues repeatedly.
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