on the corner. He had just started to explain more fully when a
patient stopped to speak to him, and so I didn't wait, as he said
Mostyn was here."

"Yes, he's in his office now." Wright nodded toward the frosted glass
door in the rear. "He was lying on the lounge when I left him just
now. It is really nothing serious. The doctor says it is only due to
loss of sleep and excessive mental strain, and that a few weeks' rest
in some quiet place will straighten him out."

"Well, I'm glad it is not serious," Saunders said. "I have seen him
break down before. He is too intense, too strenuous; whatever he does
he does with every nerve in his body drawn as taut as a fiddle-
string."

"It is his _outside_ operations, his _private_ deals," the teller went
on, in a more confidential tone. "Why, it makes me nervous even to
watch him. He's been keyed high for the last week. You know, I'm an
early riser, and I come down before any one else to get my work up. I
found him here this morning at half past seven. He was as nervous as a
man about to be hanged. He couldn't sit or stand still a minute. He
was waiting for a telegram from Augusta concerning Warner & Co. I
remember how you advised him against that deal. Well, I guess if it
had gone against him it would have ruined him."

The banker nodded. "Yes, that was foolhardy, and he seemed to me to be
going into it blindfolded. He realized the danger afterward. He
admitted it to me last night at the club. He said that he was sorry he
had not taken my advice. He was afraid, too, that Delbridge would get
on to it and laugh at him."