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One of the more unpleasant aspects of Willia of the liquidations and bankruptcies of clients who had borrowed large sums from the bank and had subsequently found themselves unable to repay their loans William was not by nature a soft person, as Henry Osborne had learned to his cost, but insisting that old and respected clients liquidate their stocks and even sell their hohts Williaories; those who looked upon bankruptcy as a part of everyday business and those ere appalled by the very word and ould spend the rest of their lives trying to repay every penny they had borrowed

Williaory but was aling approval of Tony Si such a case that Williaolden rules and became personally involved with a client Her name was Katherine Brookes, and her husband, Max Brookes, had borrowed over a million dollars from Kane and Cabot to invest in the Florida land boom of 1925, an in - vest at the bank Max Brookes had, however, been so of a hero in Massachusetts as one of the new intrepid breed of balloonists and flyers, and a close friend of Charles Lindbergh into the bargain Brookes’ tragic death when the sht of all of ten feet above the ground, hit a tree only a hundred yards after take - off was reported in the press across the length and breadth of A for the bank, immediately took over the Brookes estate, which was already insolvent, dissolved it and tried to cut the bank’s losses by selling all the land held in Florida except for two acres on which the family home stood The bank’s loss was still over three hundred thousand dollars Sohtly critical of William!s snap decision to sell off the land, a decision hich Tony Sireed William had Simmons’ disapproval of his actions entered on the minutes and was in a position to point out some months later, that if they had held on to the land, the bank would have lost inal investht did not endear hih it made the rest of the board conscious of William’s unco the bank held in Max Brookes’

name, he turned his attention to Mrs Brookes, as under a personal guarantee for her late husband’s debts Although Williaranted by the bank, the undertaking of such an obligation was riot a course that he ever recoht feel about the venture on which they were about to ereat distress to the guarantor

Willia that she make an appointment to discuss the position He had read the Brookes file conscientiously and knew that she was only twenty - two years old, a daughter of Andrew Higginson, the head of an old and distinguished Boston family, and that she had substantial assets of her owrL He did not relish the thought of requiring her to make them over to the bank, but he and Tony Sireement on the line to be taken, so he steeled hiained for was Katherine Brookes herself In later life, he could always recall in great detail the events of thatHe had had some harsh words with Tony Simmons about a substantial investment in copper and tin, which he wished to recommend to the board Industrial deniand for the twosteadily, and Williae was certain to follow Tony Si they should invest more cash in the stock market, and the matter was still uppermost in William!s mind when his secretary ushered Mrs Brookes into his office With one tentative ses from his mind Before she could sit down, he was around on the other side of his desk, settling her into a chair, sie, on closer inspection Never had William encountered a woman he considered half as lovely as Katherine Brookes Her long fair hair fell in loose and ard curls to her shoulders, and little wisps escaped enchantingly fro around her te in no way detracted froure ’Me fine bone structure ensured that she was a woe

Her brown eyes were enormous They were also, unmistakably, apprehensive of him and what he was about to say