It is like this, Maude. The mine was a very good one, and paid handsome dividends. Then it had some misfortunes. First, there was no water, and then there was too much water, and the workings were flooded. So, of course, the price of the shares fell. Now they are getting the mine all right again, but the shares are still low. It certainly seems a very good chance to pick a few of them up.'
'Are they very dear, Frank?'
'I looked them up in the Mining Register before I came home yesterday. The original price of each share was ten shillings, but as they have had these misfortunes, one would expect to find them rather lower.'
'Ten shillings! It does not seem much to pay for a share in a thing with a name like that.'
'Here it is,' said he, pointing with a pencil to one name in a long printed list. 'This one, between the Royal Bonanza and the Alabaster Consols. You see--El Dorado Proprietary! Then after it you have printed, 4.75--4.875. I don't profess to know much about these things, but that of course means the price.'
'Yes, dear, it is printed at the top of the column--"Yesterday's prices."'
'Quito so. Well, we know that the original price of each share was ten shillings, and of course they must have dropped with a flood in the mine, so that these figures must mean that the price yesterday was four shillings and nine-pence, or thereabouts.'
'What a clear head for business you have, dear!'
'I think we can't do wrong in buying at that price. You see, with our fifty pounds we could buy two hundred of them, and then if they went up again we could sell, and take our profit.'
'How delightful! But suppose they don't go up.'
'Well, they can't go down. I should not think that a share at four shillings and ninepence COULD go down very much. There is no room. But it may go up to any extent.'
'Besides, your friend said that they would go up.'
'Yes, he seemed quite confident about it. Well, what do you think, Maude? Is it good enough or not?'
'O Frank, I hardly dare advise you. Just imagine if we were to lose it all. Do you think it would be wiser to get a hundred shares, and then we could buy twenty-five pounds' worth of Royal Bonanza as well. It would be impossible for them both to go wrong.'
'The Royal Bonanza shares are dear, and then we have had no information about it. I think we had better back our own opinion.'
'All right, Frank.'
'Then that is settled. I have a telegraph-form here.'
'Could you not buy them yourself when you are in town?'
'No, you can't buy things yourself. You have to do it through a broker.'
'I always thought a broker was a horrid man, who came and took your furniture away.'
'Ah, that's another kind of broker. He comes afterwards. I promised Harrison that he should have any business which I could put in his way, so here goes. How is that?' -
'Harrison, 13a Throgmorton Street, E.C.--Buy two hundred El Dorado Proprietaries.
'CROSSE, Woking.'
'Doesn't it sound rather peremptory, Frank?'
'No, no, that is mere business.'
'I hope he won't be offended.'
'I think I can answer for that.'
'You have not said the price.'
'One cannot say the price because one does not know it. You see, it is always going up and down. By this time it may be a little higher or a little lower than yesterday. There cannot be much change, that is certain. Great Scot, Maude, it is ten-fifteen. Three and a half minutes for a quarter of a mile. Good-bye, darling! I just love you in that bodice. O Lord--good-bye!'
'Well, has anything happened?'
'Yes, you have come back. Oh I am so glad to see you, you dear old boy!'
'Take care of that window, darling!'
'Oh, my goodness, I hope he didn't see. No, it's all right. He was looking the other way. We have the gold shares all right.'
'Harrison has telegraphed?'
'Yes, here it is.' -
'Crosse, The Lindens, Woking.--Bought two hundred El Dorados at 4.75.
HARRISON.'
'That is capital. I rather expected to see Harrison in the train.