Page:Edgar Jepson--the four philanthropists.djvu/139

Rh "Well, then we will dismiss from our minds the thought of taking it out of Pudleigh, and think only of the orphan and the hospital," said I.

"I want to take it out of the sweep. Think of poor old Chantrey," said Bottiger savagely.

"I'm bound to say the chance of playing a square financial game attracts me," said Chelubai. "One doesn't often get it."

With that I gave him some of the Quorley Granite Company documents I had had from Morton, when I gave his firm counsel's opinion on the matter.

He studied them for a while with the eye of an expert. Then he said: "The proper place for British investors is an asylum for imbeciles. Look at the cost of promotion and the directors' fees. What fools they are!"

I expressed my warm and professional agreement with his estimate of the investor's intelligence. Then we deliberated. The upshot was that we made up our minds to begin buying Quorley Granite shares at once, to buy them slowly and without ceasing till they rose to a shilling, then stop and let them sink till the time came to buy again.

The next day, accordingly, we instructed a broker to begin buying them for the Children's Hospital, and I went again to see Morton, and begged him to ascertain for us who were the