2/8 He had ever been a hard man and knew well enough that the clerks disliked him. He hated humbug. And now the fortune was made, and the room behind him stood ready, spick and span, for the Scotsman who would take his chair to-morrow. Drawers had been emptied and dusted, loose papers and memoranda sorted and either burnt or arranged and docketed, ledgers entered up to the last item in his firm handwriting, and finally closed. The history of his manhood lay shut between their covers, written in figures terser than a Roman classic: his grand _coup_ in Nunsasee goods, Abdul Guffere's debt commuted for 500,000 rupees, the salvage of the _Ramillies_ wreck, his commercial duel with Viltul Parrak. |