wouldn't hear of it. Somehow, she's deuced unlucky. I suppose she'll
make a mess of it with Captain Greyson she was out riding with this
morning."

"Didn't the Bank think Bradley's mills a good investment?" asked
Mainwaring quietly, when Richardson paused.

"Not with him in it; he is not a business man, you know."

"I thought he was. He seems to me an energetic man, who knows his work,
and is not afraid to look after it himself."

"That's just it. He has got absurd ideas of co-operating with his
workmen, you know, and doing everything slowly and on a limited scale.
The only thing to be done is to buy up all the land on this ridge, run
off the settlers, freeze out all the other mills, and put it into a big
San Francisco company on shares. That's the only way we would look at
it."

"But you don't consider the investment bad, even from HIS point of
view?"

"Perhaps not."

"And you only decline it because it isn't big enough for the Bank?"

"Exactly."

"Richardson," said Mainwaring, slowly rising, putting his hands in his
trousers pockets, and suddenly looking down upon the banker from the