"Do you think, Draymore, that it is very good taste in you to come into a man's place and begin slanging and cursing a member of his firm for crooked work ?" "Besides," added Mottly, "it's not crooked; it's only contemptible.
Anyway, we know with whom we have to deal, now; but some of you fellows must do the dealing--I'd rather pay and keep away than ask Neergard to go easy--and have him do it." "I don't know," said Fane, grinning his saurian grin, "why you all assume that Neergard is such a social outcast.

I played cards with him last week and he lost like a gentleman." "I didn't say he was a social outcast," retorted Mottly--"because he's never been inside of anything to be cast out, you know." "He seems to be inside this deal," ventured Orchil with his suave smile.
And to Selwyn, who had been restlessly facing first one, then another: "We came--it was the idea of several among us--to put the matter up to you.

Which was rather foolish, because you couldn't have engineered the thing and remained what we know you to be.

So--" "Wait!" said Selwyn brusquely; "I do not admit for one moment that there is anything dishonourable in this deal!--nor do I accept your right to question it from that standpoint.

As far as I can see, it is one of those operations which is considered clever among business folk, and which is admired and laughed over in reputable business circles.