"That club business is going nicely," said Sam. "Langdon is enthusiastic,
and I find you've got good friends on the committee."

I knew that well enough. Hadn't I been carrying them on my books at a good
round loss for two years?

"If it wasn't for--for some features of this business of yours," he went
on, "I'd say there wouldn't be the slightest trouble."

"Bucket-shop?" said I with an easy laugh, though this nagging was beginning
to get on my nerves.

"Exactly," said he. "And, you know, you advertise yourself like--like--"

"Like everybody else, only more successfully than most," said I. "Everybody
advertises, each one adapting his advertising to the needs of his
enterprises, as far as he knows how."

"That's true enough," he confessed. "But there are enterprises and
enterprises, you know."

"You can tell 'em, Sam," said I, "that I never put out a statement I don't
believe to be true, and that when any of my followers lose on one of my
tips, I've lost on it, too. For I play my own tips--and that's more than
can be said of any 'financier' in this town."

"It'd be no use to tell 'em that," said he. "Character's something of
a consideration in social matters, of course. But it isn't the chief
consideration by a long shot, and the absence of it isn't necessarily
fatal."