That prevents you from spoiling your own show. You're playing with
life's vital things."
"I wonder how much you've got out of it all, father," Carnac remarked
with a smile. He lit a cigarette. "You do your job in style. It's been a
great career, yours. You've made your big business out of nothing."
"I had something to start with. Your grandfather had a business worth not
much, but it was a business, and the fundamental thing is to have
machinery to work with when you start life. I had that. My father was
narrow, contracted and a blunderer, but he made good in a small way."
"And you in a big way," said Carnac, with admiration and criticism in his
eyes.
He realized that John Grier had summed him up fairly when he said he was
playing with life's vital things. Somehow, he saw the other had a grip
upon essentials lacking in himself; he had his tooth in the orange, as it
were, and was sucking the juice of good profit from his labours. Yet he
knew how much trickery and vital evasion and harsh aggression there were
in his father's business life.
As yet he had never seen Tarboe--he had been away in the country the
whole year nearly--but he imagined a man of strength, abilities,
penetration and deep power.
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