"Well, Stranleigh, you're looking very cool and collected. Enacting the part of the idle rich, I suppose?" "No, I'm a specimen of labour unrest." "Perhaps I can appease that. I'm open to a deal at fair compensation for you. If you will simply parade the streets in that leisurely fashion we all admire, bearing a placard 'Pure Ice Company,' I'll guarantee you a living wage and an eight hours' day." "Should I be required to carry about crystal blocks of the product?" "No; you're frigid enough as it is. Besides, ice at the present moment is too scarce to be expended on even so important a matter as advertisement." Banks wheeled forward an arm chair, and sat down opposite his lordship. A useful feature of a panama hat is its flexibility. You may roll one brim to fit the hand, and use the other as a fan, and this Banks did with the perfection of practice. "What's the cause of the unrest, Stranleigh?" "Thinking. That's the cause of unrest all the world over. Whenever people begin to think, there is trouble." "I've never noticed any undue thoughtfulness in you, Stranleigh." "That's just it. Thinking doesn't agree with me, and as you hint, I rarely indulge in it, but this is a land that somehow stimulates thought, and thought compels action. Action is all very well in moderation, but in these United States of yours it is developed into a fever, or frenzy rather, curable only by a breakdown or death." "Do you think it's as bad as all that?" "Yes, I do. You call it enterprise; I call it greed. I've never yet met an American who knew when he'd had enough." "Did you ever meet an Englishman who knew that?" "Thousands of them." Banks laughed. "I imagine," he said, "it's all a matter of nomenclature. You think us fast over here, and doubtless you are wrong; _we_ think _you_ slow over there, and doubtless we are wrong. I don't think we're greedy. No man is so lavish in his expenditure as an American, and no man more generous. A greedy man does not spend money. Our motive power is interest in the game." "Yes; everyone has told me that, but I regard the phrase as an excuse, not as a reason." "Look here, Stranleigh, who's been looting you? What deal have you lost? I warned you against mixing philanthropy with business, you remember." Stranleigh threw back his head and laughed. "There you have it. According to you a man cannot form an opinion that is uninfluenced by his pocket. As a matter of fact, I have won all along the line. I tried the game, as you call it, hoping to find it interesting, but it doesn't seem to me worth while. I pocket the stakes, and I am going home, in no way elated at my success, any more than I should have been discouraged had I failed." Leaning forward, Mr. Banks spoke as earnestly as the weather permitted.