Vandrift, whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple process in public.  He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet “beautiful.”  And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge of brilliants and of crystalline science.

Everybody applauded.  It was an awkward moment.  Sir Charles bit his lip.  Mosenheimer looked glum.  Young Phipson dropped an expression which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy, the meeting separated.

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.”