"I want to try your virgin luck.

But, go ahead, and let me know this afternoon." At luncheon I sat at Doctor Green's right, Jay Gould at his left.

For the first and last time in its history wine was served at this board; Russell Sage was effusive in his demonstrations of affection and went on with his stories of my boyhood; every one sought to take the chill off the occasion; and we had a most enjoyable time instead of what promised to be rather a frosty formality.

When the rest had departed, leaving Doctor Green, Mr.Gould and myself at table, mindful of what I had come for, in a bantering way I said to Doctor Green: "Now that I am a Wall Street ingenu, why don't you tell me something ?" Gould leaned across the table and said in his velvet voice: "Buy Texas Pacific." Two or three days after, Texas Pacific fell off sixty points or more.
I did not see Big Green again.

Five or six months later I received from him a statement of account which I could never have unraveled, with a check for some thousands of dollars, my one-half profit on such and such an operation.