Just now the elevator was going down,
and down it continued to go to the very subcellar. It was dark in that
subcellar, not a ray of light anywhere. Galusha realized now, or thought
he did, that all his great scheme for helping Martha to dispose of her
Development shares had been based upon nothing substantial, nothing but
rainbow-tinted hopes which, in turn, were based upon nothing but wishes.
Omitting the hopes and wishes, what was there left? Just what the
president of the Trumet Trust Company had told Martha and what Raish
Pulcifer, when angered into truthtelling, had told him. That is, that
the shares of the Wellmouth Development Company might be worth something
some day, but that now they were worth nothing, because no one would buy
them.
Yes... yes, that was the truth.... But how could he go down to the
sitting room and tell Martha Phipps that truth, having already told her
so much that was quite different?
If she would only let him lend her the five thousand dollars, or
whatever it was. He did not know how much Cousin Gussie was taking care
of for him at present, but there had been a large sum at the time
of Aunt Clarissa's death. He remembered that the figures had quite
frightened him then. He had not thought much about them since, because
they did not interest him. He always had enough for his needs and more
than enough, and dividends, and interests, and investments and all such
things bored him and made him nervous.
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