You are cosmopolitan; M. Jean Jacques Barbille is a provincial;
and you, because he has soul enough to forget business for a moment and
to speak of things that matter more than money and business, you grind
him into powder."
M. Mornay shook his head and lighted his cigar again. "There you are
wrong, Maitre Fille. It is bad policy to grind to powder, or grind at
all, men out of whom you are making money. It is better to keep them
from between the upper and nether mill-stones.
"I have done so with your Barbille. I could give him such trouble as
would bring things crashing down upon him at once, if I wanted to be
merely vicious in getting my own; but that would make it impossible for
me to meet at dinner my friend Judge Carcasson. So, as long as I can,
I will not press him. But I tell you that the margin of safety on which
he is moving now is too narrow--scarce a foot-hold. He has too much
under construction in the business of his life, and if one stone slips
out, down may come the whole pile. He has stopped building the cheese-
factory--that represents sheer loss. The ash-factory is to close next
week, the saw-mill is only paying its way, and the flour-mill and the
farms, which have to sustain the call of his many interests, can't stand
the drain.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25