"They may go, sir," says he, "but let them never more be officers of
mine." With scorn and indignation he paid off one or two timid friends,
who were anxious to fly, and purchased their shares out of his own
pocket. But his purse was not long enough for this kind of amusement.
What money he had was invested in the Company already, and his name
further pledged for meeting the engagements from which their late London
bankers had withdrawn.
Those gentlemen, in the meanwhile, spoke of their differences with the
Indian Bank as quite natural, and laughed at the absurd charges of
personal hostility which poor Thomas Newcome publicly preferred. "Here is
a hot-headed old Indian dragoon," says Sir Barnes, "who knows no more
about business than I do about cavalry tactics or Hindostanee; who gets
into a partnership along with other dragoons and Indian wiseacres, with
some uncommonly wily old native practitioners; and they pay great
dividends, and they set up a bank. Of course we will do these people's
business as long as we are covered, but I have always told their manager
that we would run no risks whatever, and close the account the very
moment it did not suit us to keep it: and so we parted company six weeks
ago, since when there has been a panic in the Company, a panic which has
been increased by Colonel Newcome's absurd swagger and folly.
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