“Which is preparatory to saying that you would like me to put up more margins, I presume?”

“Business is business, you know, Mr. Smith,” he said, softly rubbing his hands.

“I have, anticipated your caution,” I remarked.  Mr. Harding had warned me that an unwarranted demand for margins would be made, but confident of the integrity of my brokers I had doubted it.  “I presume an extra ten points will satisfy you?”

He seemed surprised but said it would.  I gave him a certified check for $450,000.

“Thank you, Mr. Smith.  You will excuse me for requesting this, but business is business.”

“So I am learning,” I coldly observed, and this closed our interview.  I was convinced that “the conspirators” had gotten into communication with my brokers, but of course I could not prove it.

As the noon hour approached, N.O. & G. sagged off to 53 on comparatively heavy transactions.  It stuck there until over the various mechanisms for sending information came this simple announcement, “The directors of the N.O. & G. have passed the regular semi-annual dividend.”

The card boy of the stock board became busy.  N.O. & G. dropped a point or more between sales, until it struck 47.  I had small doubt of the outcome, but it is not pleasant to sit and watch the figures go up which hint at a loss of $45,000 every minute or so.  I tried to look unconcerned, but doubt if I succeeded.

I knew that not far away a strong man was at the wheel, but the best of ships go down.  What if his plans had miscarried?  I dared not think of it!

“Two thousand N.O. & G. at 48,” called the watcher at the ticker.  “Five hundred at 47-1/2; 1,000 at 47; 2,000, 400, I,500, 3,000, at 47.  Looks as if someone has pegged it at 47!”

The entire market was declining in sympathy with the disturbing news concerning this standard property.  “Twelve hundred N.O. & G. at 47-1/4,” called the man at the ticker.  “Three thousand at 48; 1,500 at 49; 5,000 at 50!  Someone’s after that non-dividend paying stock!”

Like a man in a dream I watched that stock start on its dizzy climb.  In five minutes it had reached 55, and by leaps and bounds it soared to 70.  My brokers rushed to me with their congratulations.  Did I wish to place any orders?  Some strong interest undoubtedly was back of the rise?

I informed them I had purchased all I desired.

I am not indifferent in the matter of money.  I am ambitious to possess it for the prestige it gives and the power it grants, but it is the simple truth to say that in those triumphant moments and in the subsequent hours the thought which held possession of me and which made me superlatively happy was the consciousness that so far as material assets were concerned I had a right to aspire to the hand of Grace Harding!

For some time the quotations vibrated nervously about the seventy mark.  I was about to start for Mr. Harding’s office when a man with a loud voice read a bulletin just received.