Helen Ford by Jr. Horatio Alger

Author:Jr. Horatio Alger [Alger, Jr. Horatio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783958643383
Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
Published: 2019-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning found Mr. Sharp closeted with a brother practitioner equally unprincipled with himself. There was this difference between them, however, that while Mr. Sharp concealed his real character beneath a specious show of affability and suavity, his companion, whom, by way of distinction, we will call Blunt, was rough in his manners, and had not art enough to compass the consummate duplicity of the other. Indeed, so accustomed was Mr. Sharp to its use, that he did not lay it aside even where he knew it to be useless.

“My dear friend Blunt,” he exclaimed, with charming cordiality, “I am delighted to see you looking so well.”

“Humph?” was the somewhat dubious rejoinder.

“I should have called upon you instead of sending for you to my office, but I have really been so harassed by business that I could not get a single spare moment.”

“And you presumed that I was not overburdened in that way, eh?”

“My dear Blunt,” said Sharp, with wounded feeling, “how can you imagine such a thing?”

“I only judged from what you said. You hadn’t time to call upon me, but judged that I had plenty of time to spend in calling upon you.”

“My dear Blunt,” said Sharp, impressively, “if the extent of a man’s business were always commensurate with his merits——”

“We should neither of us stand a very good chance.”

“That was not exactly what I intended to say,” said Sharp, blowing his nose, “your modesty, my dear Blunt——”

“Modesty! I am sure you’re joking now, Sharp, and although my time is not particularly valuable, I don’t care to stand here discussing personal qualities; so if you had any object in sending for me, out with it.”

“You are somewhat abrupt in your speech, my dear friend; an evidence of your sincerity, for which no one has a greater respect than myself.”

“I have heard,” muttered Blunt, “that people are apt to set a high value on qualities which they lack.”

“However,” pursued Sharp, evading a reply to his last remark, “I have a little professional business to offer you, if your engagement will permit.”

“No fear on that score,” said Blunt, dryly; “but this business—why don’t you do it yourself? You needn’t tell me it’s on account of a pressure of the other engagements, for I know better.”

“That is not the reason, as with your usual penetration you have discovered, my dear Blunt. Do not for a moment think I would attempt to deceive you. With others it might do; but with you I know there would be no chance of succeeding.”

Mr. Sharp nodded with pleasant affability to his visitor, and resumed: “The fact is, it is a matter in which I do not wish to appear. One of my clients (Mr. Sharp brought out these words with an emphasis calculated to convey the idea that it was one of a very large number), for a reason which I need not mention, employed me some weeks since to lend a sum of money to a certain individual. This was only to establish a power over him which, some time, it might be convenient to use.

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