Longworth told me the other day
that he had five or six people who are ready to go into this business
with us, and if such is the case he has certainly done his share.'
'Yes, I admit that. Did he give you their names?'
'No, he did not.'
'The thing that troubles me is our own helplessness. We seem, in some way
or other, to have been shoved into the background.'
'So far from that being the case,' said Wentworth, 'Longworth told me
that, if anything suggested itself to us, we were to go ahead with it. He
asked what you had done and what I had done, and I told him. He seemed
quite anxious that we should do everything we could, as he is doing.'
'Well, but, don't you see, the situation is this: if we make a move at
all, we may do something of which he does not approve. Haven't you
noticed that whenever I suggest anything, or whenever you suggest
anything, for that matter, he always has something counter to it? And I
don't like the solicitors he has engaged for this business. They are what
is known as "shady"; you know that as well as I do.'
'Bless me, John! then suggest something yourself if you have such dark
suspicions of Longworth. I'm sure I'm willing to do anything you want
done. Suggest something.'
Before John could make the required suggestion, the messenger Wentworth
had sent to young Longworth returned.
'His uncle says, sir,' began the messenger, 'that Master William has gone
to the North, and will not be back for a week.
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