The ProfiteersOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Profiteers
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
"Is he giving them both up?" Kendrick enquired.
"He's giving up the cricket, of course, unless he finds that it happens
to be a slack day in the City," Sarah replied. "As for the polo, well, no
one works on Saturday afternoon, do they?"
"How is my friend, Mr. Peter Phipps?" Lady Amesbury demanded. "The big
man who looked like a professional millionaire? Is he making a man of
that bad husband of yours, Josephine?"
"They spend a good deal of time together," Josephine replied. "I don't
think he'll ever succeed in making a business man out of Henry, though,
any more than Mr. White will out of Jimmy."
A familiar form approached the table. Sarah welcomed him with a wave of
her hand. The Honourable Jimmy greeted Lady Amesbury and his host,
nodded to every one else, and took the vacant place which had been left
for him. He seemed fatigued.
"Can I have a cocktail, Mr. Wingate?" he begged, summoning a waiter. "A
double Martini, please. Big things doing in the City," he confided.
"Have you had to work very hard, dear?" Sarah asked sympathetically.
"Absolutely feverish rush ever since I got there," he declared. "Don't
know how long my nerves will stand it. Telephones ringing, men rushing
out of the office without their hats, and bumping into you without saying
'by your leave' or 'beg your pardon,' or any little civility of that
sort, and good old Maurice, with his hair standing up on end, shouting
into two telephones at the same time, and dictating a letter to one of
the peachiest little bits of fluff I've seen outside the front rows for I
don't know how long."
"Jimmy," Sarah said sternly, "I'm not sure that the City is going to suit
you. You don't have to dictate letters to her, do you?"
"No such luck," Jimmy sighed. "She is the Chief's own particular
property. Does a thousand words a minute and knits a jumper at the
same time."
"Whom do you dictate your letters to?" Sarah demanded.
"To tell you the truth," Jimmy answered, falling on his cocktail, "I
haven't had any to write yet."
"What has your work been?" Lady Amesbury asked.
"Kind of superintending," the young man explained, "looking on at
everything--getting the hang of it, you know."
"Are the other men there nice?" Sarah enquired.
"Well, we don't seem to have had much time for conversation yet," Jimmy
replied, attacking his caviar like a man anxious to make up for lost
time. "I heard one chap tell another that I'd come to give tone to the
establishment, which seemed to me a pleasant and friendly way of
looking at it."
"You didn't have any commissions yourself?" Sarah went on.
"Well, not exactly," Jimmy confessed. "About half an hour before I
left, a lunatic with perspiration streaming down his face, and no hat,
threw himself into my room. 'I'll buy B. & I.'s,' he shouted. 'I'll buy
B. & I.'s!'"
"What did you do?" Wingate enquired with interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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