I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable. Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the next few weeks or so. He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except on occasions when he is _very_ angry, my respected connection _never_ calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation, "Sey"--derived from Seymour--is his usual mode of address to me in private.) "_Is_ it likely I would unload, and wreck the confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a moment? As a director--as Chairman--would it be just or right of me? I ask you, sir, _could_ I reconcile it to my conscience?" "Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators. At the same time I thought to myself, "_I_ am not a director. No trust is reposed in _me_. _I_ have to think first of dear Isabel and the baby. Before the crash comes _I_ will sell out to-morrow the few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp Golcondas." With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey," he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will be upon us to-morrow. If _you_ were to sell out, and operators got to know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your own property. I can't interfere with _that_. I do not dictate to you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore, though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give you warning: _if_ you sell out those shares of yours, openly or secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six months' salary in lieu of notice, and--you leave me instantly."