The things we do!

"
"That may be," says the young man; "of course, as businessmen, that's not
our affair. But has he got the fortune? He keeps a large account with us;
and, I think, wants to have larger dealings with us still. As one of the
family we may ask you to stand by us, and tell us anything you know. My
father has asked him down to Newcome, and we've taken him up; wisely or
not I can't say. I think otherwise; but I'm quite young in the house, and
of course the elders have the chief superintendence." The young man of
business had dropped his drawl or his languor, and was speaking quite
unaffectedly; good-naturedly, and selfishly. Had you talked to him for a
week, you could not have made him understand the scorn and loathing with
which the Colonel regarded him. Here was a young fellow as keen as the
oldest curmudgeon; a lad with scarce a beard to his chin, that would
pursue his bond as rigidly as Shylock. "If he is like this at twenty,
what will he be at fifty?" groaned the Colonel.


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