It would be perilous to put yourself in
the hands of a mortgage broker."
Barrington stood up very grim and straight, and there were not many men
at Silverdale who would have met his gaze.
"Your content is a little too apparent, but I can still resent an
impertinence," he said. "Are my affairs your business?"
"Sit down, sir," said Winston. "I fancy they are, and had it not been
necessary, I would not have ventured so far. You have done much for
Silverdale, and it has cost you a good deal, while it seems to me that
every man here has a duty to the head of the settlement. I am,
however, not going to urge that point, but have, as you know, a
propensity for taking risks. I can't help it. It was probably born in
me. Now, I will take that contract up for you."
Barrington gazed at him in bewildered astonishment.
But you would lose on it heavily. How could you overcome a difficulty
that is too great for me?"
"Well," said Winston, with a little smile, "it seems I have some
ability in dealing with these affairs."
Barrington did not answer for a while, and when he spoke it was slowly.
"You have a wonderful capacity for making any one believe in you."
"That is not the point," said Winston. "If you will let me have the
contract, or, and it comes to the same thing, buy the wheat it calls
for, and if advisable sell as much again, exactly as I tell you, at my
risk and expense, I shall get what I want out of it. My affairs are a
trifle complicated and it would take some little time to make you
understand how this would suit me.
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