He imagined that innocent employee had been reading the article
in the _Financial Field_; but the truth is, John was hardly in a frame of
mind to form a correct opinion on what other people were doing. Everybody
he met in the street, it seemed to him, was discussing the article in the
_Financial Field_.
He asked if anybody had been in that morning, and was told there had been
no callers. Then he passed into the directors' room, closed the door
behind him, sat down on a chair, and leaned his head on his hands with
his elbows on the table. In this position Wentworth found him some time
later, and when John looked up his face was haggard and aged.
'Ah, I see you have read it.'
'Yes.'
'Do you think Longworth is at the bottom of that article?'
John shook his head.
'Oh no,' he said; 'he had nothing whatever to do with it.'
'How do you know?'
Kenyon related exactly what had passed between the oily young man of the
_Financial Field_ and himself in that very room. While this recital was
going on, Wentworth walked up and down, expressing his opinion now and
then, in remarks that were short and pithy, but hardly fit for
publication. When the story was told he turned to Kenyon.
'Well,' he said, 'there is nothing for it but to sue the paper for
libel.'
'What good will that do?'
'What good will it do? Do you mean to say that you intend to sit here
under such an imputation as they have cast upon you, and do nothing? What
_good_ will it do? It will do all the good in the world.
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