wrecks, and things, Steelman leaning with his elbows on the balcony rail,
and Sharper sociably and confidently in the same position close beside him.
But the professional was evidently growing uneasy in his mind;
his side of the conversation grew awkward and disjointed,
and he made the blunder of drifting into an embarrassing silence
before coming to the point. He took one elbow from the rail, and said,
with a bungling attempt at carelessness which was made more transparent
by the awkward pause before it:

"Ah, well, I must see to my correspondence. By the way,
when could you make it convenient to let me have that hundred?
The shares are starting up the last rise now, and we've got no time to lose
if we want to double it."

Steelman turned his face to him and winked once -- a very hard, tight,
cold wink -- a wink in which there was no humour: such a wink
as Steelman had once winked at a half-drunken bully who was going to have
a lark with Smith.

The sharper was one of those men who pull themselves together in a bad cause,
as they stagger from the blow. But he wanted to think this time.

Later on he approached Steelman quietly and proposed partnership.
But Steelman gave him to understand (as between themselves)
that he wasn't taking on any pupils just then.




An Incident at Stiffner's