His confidence must have been strengthened by the survey, for he closed with emphasis, saying: "I am a false prophet if I do not place those French shares in your hands, your own property and bought with your own money, within a fortnight." "Within a fortnight!" exclaimed Richard, his face brightening with the satisfaction the promise gave him.
There was that in Mr.Bayard's manner which invested his utterance with all the credit granted his signature at the banks.

Richard felt as though the French certificates, which meant so much to Dorothy and to him, were as good as in his hands.
"When I say a fortnight," observed Mr.Bayard, "I ought to add my reasons.

The source of my news is unimportant, but you may accept it as settled that Tuesday next has been secretly pitched upon by our worthy President for divers warlike declarations, founded on the Monroe Doctrine, and pointed at Germany, whose cruisers are just now nosing about on a debt-collecting errand against one of the South American states.

The President will resent the nosing, call German attention to our Monroe Doctrine as the line fence between the hemispheres, and then mount guard over the sacred rails of that venerated barrier with a gun.
All of which might excite but little interest were it not, as a demonstration, sure to send the market tumbling like a shot pigeon.

I'm not certain that the whole affair hasn't some such commercial purpose.
Be that as it may, the day following that valorous manifesto will be a time of panic, and the bottom will fall out of stocks.