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William strove for his business tone of voice ’Mrs Brookes, may I say how sorry I was to learn of your husband’s death and howyou to cole sentence that would have been the truth five minutes before He waited to hear her speak
’Thank you, Mr Kane’ Her voice was soft and had a gentle, low pitch
’I aations to your bank and I assure you that I will do everything inshe would go on speaking She did not,,so he outlined how he had disposed of Max Brookes’ estate She listened with downcast eyes
’Now, Mrs Brookes, you acted as guarantor for your husband’s loan and that brings us to the question of your per - sonal assets! He consulted his file ’You have sohty thousand dollars in investments - your own family money, I believe - and seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty - six dollars in your personal account!
She looked up Tour grasp of my financial position is commendable, Mr
Kane You should add, however, Buckhurst Park, our house in Florida, which was in Max’s name, and soether I am worth the three hundred thousand dollars you still require, and I have ements to realise the full ahtest treazed at her in admiration
’Mrs Brookes, the bank has no intention of relieving you of your every last possession With your agree else youthe house~ we consider should remain in your possession!
She hesitated ’I appreciate your generosity, Mr Kane However, I have no - wish to reation to your bank or to leave ain, but quickly suppressed ’Anyway, I have decided to sell the house in Florida and return to my parents’ home as soon as possible!
Willia back to Boston ’In that case, perhaps we can reach soreement about the proceeds of the sale,’ he said
’We can do that now,’ she said flatly Tou must have the entire a ’Don’t let’s ht be wise to consult ain at a later date’
She shrugged slightly ’As you wish I don~t really care about the money either way, and I wouldn’t want to put you to any inconvenience!
William blinked ’Mrs Brookes, I nani you to luncIL’
She s an unsuspected diht and did his ut lunch at the Ritz By the time he returned to his desk, it ell past three o’clock
’Long lunch, William,’ commented Tony Simmons
’Yes, the Brookes problem turned out to be trickier than I had expected!
’It looked fairly straightforward to me when I went over the papers,’ said Si about our offer, is she? I thought ere being rather generous in the circuht so too I had to talk her out of divesting herself of her last dollar to swell our reserves? Tony Simmons stared ’That doesn!t sound like the William Kane we all know and love so well Still, there has never been a better tirimaced Since the day of his arrival, he and Tony Siree The Dow Jones had beensteadily upward since Herbert Hoover’s election to the White House in November 1928 In fact, only ten days later, the New York stock exchange had a record of over six million shares volume in one day But Williae influx of money fro to the point of instability Tony Simmons, on the other hand, was confident that the boom would continue so that when Willias he was invariably overruled However, with his trust money, he was free to follow his own intuition, and started investing heavily in land, gold, commodities and even in so only fifty per cent of his cash in stocks
When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York put out an edict declaring that they would not re - discount loans to those banks which were releasing money to their customers for the sole purpose of speculation, William considered that the first nail had been driven into the speculator’s coffin He iramme and estimated that Kane and Cabot had over twenty - six ed Tony Siovernulation in operation, stock prices would inevitably fall in the long terht at the , and William was voted down by twelve to two