"Just as you please,
of course.--I'll only ask you, doctor, to treat the matter as strictly
confidential."
"I suppose he says the same to everyone he tells," was Mahony's comment
as he flicked up his horse; and he wondered what the extent might be of
the lawyer's personal interest in the "Porepunkah Company." Probably the
number of shareholders was not large enough to rake up the capital.
Still, the incident gave him food for thought, and only after closing
time did he remember his intention of driving home by way of the Bank.
Later in the day he came back on the incident, and pondered his abrupt
refusal of Ocock's offer. There was nothing unusual in this: he never
took advice well; and, was it forced upon him, nine times out of ten a
certain inborn contrariness drove him to do just the opposite. Besides,
he had not yet learned to look with lenience on the rage for speculation
that had seized the people of Ballarat; and he held that it would be
culpable for a man of his slender means to risk money in the great game.
--But was there any hint of risk in the present instance? To judge from
Ocock's manner, the investment was as safe as a house, and lucrative to
a degree that made one's head swim. "Many times their original figure!"
An Arabian-nights fashion of growing rich, and no mistake! Very
different from the laborious grind of HIS days, in which he had always
to reckon with the chance of not being paid at all. That very afternoon
had brought him a fresh example of this.
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