It was this way.

He, or rather his firm, which is only another name for him, for he owned three-fourths of the capital, got some tremendous shipping contract with the Government arising out of the war, that secures an enormous profit to them; how much I can't tell you, but hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He had been very anxious about this contract, for his terms were so stiff that the officials who manage such affairs hesitated about signing them.

At last one day after a long and I gather, stormy interview with I don't know whom, in the course of which some rather strong language seems to have been used, the contract was signed and delivered to the firm.

My father came home to this house with a copy of it in his pocket.