"It's like this," said Grier in their last talk, "you've got to keep a
stiff hand over the foremen and overseers, and have strict watch of
Belloc & Co. Perhaps there will be trouble when I've gone, but, if it
does, keep a stiff upper lip, and don't let the gang do you. You've got
a quick mind and you know how to act sudden. Act at once, and damn the
consequences! Remember, John Grier's firm has a reputation, and deal
justly, but firmly, with opposition. The way it's organized, the
business almost runs itself. But that's only when the man at the head
keeps his finger on the piston-rod. You savvy, don't you?"

"I savvy all right. If the Belloc firm cuts up rusty, I'll think of what
you'd do and try to do it in the same way."

The old man smiled. He liked the spirit in Carnac. It was the right
kind for his business. "I predict this: if you have one fight with the
Belloc lot, you'll hate them too. Keep the flag flying. Don't get
rattled. It's a big job, and it's worth doing in a big way.

"Yes, it's a big job," said Carnac. "I hope I'll pull it off."

"You'll pull it off, if you bend your mind to it. But there won't be any
time for your little pictures and statues. You'll have to deal with the
real men, and they'll lose their glamour. That's the thing about
business--it's death to sentimentality."

Carnac flushed with indignation. "So you think Titian and Velasquez and
Goyot and El Greco and Watteau and Van Dyck and Rembrandt and all the
rest were sentimentalists, do you? The biggest men in the world worship
them. You aren't just to the greatest intellects. I suppose Shakespeare
was a sentimentalist!"