George Sheldon would fain have kept his project hidden from his elder brother; but in this one unguarded moment he forgot himself, and allowed the sense of triumph to irradiate his face.
The stockbroker was a reader of men rather than books; and it is a notable thing what superiority in all worldly wisdom is possessed by men who eschew books.

He was able to translate the meaning of George's smile--a smile of mingled triumph and malice.
"The fellow _has_ got a good thing," he thought to himself, "and Hawkehurst is in it.

It must be a deuced good thing too, or he wouldn't refuse my offer of money." Mr.Sheldon was the last man in the world to reveal any mortification which he might experience from his brother's conduct.
"Well, you're quite right to stick to your chance, George," he said, with agreeable frankness.

"You've waited long enough for it.

As for me, I've got my fingers in a good many pies just at present; so perhaps I had better keep them out of yours, whatever plums there may be to be picked out of it by an enterprising Jack Horner.