Was it true that there were canals on it, and people?
Life was surely strange.
One day not long after this Alexander Rambaud called him up on the 'phone and remarked, jocosely: "I say, Cowperwood, I've played a rather shabby trick on you just now.
Doctor Hooper, of the University, was in here a few minutes ago asking me to be one of ten to guarantee the cost of a telescope lens that he thinks he needs to run that one-horse school of his out there.

I told him I thought you might possibly be interested.

His idea is to find some one who will guarantee forty thousand dollars, or eight or ten men who will guarantee four or five thousand each.

I thought of you, because I've heard you discuss astronomy from time to time." "Let him come," replied Cowperwood, who was never willing to be behind others in generosity, particularly where his efforts were likely to be appreciated in significant quarters.
Shortly afterward appeared the doctor himself--short, rotund, rubicund, displaying behind a pair of clear, thick, gold-rimmed glasses, round, dancing, incisive eyes.

Imaginative grip, buoyant, self-delusive self-respect were written all over him.