"Supposing you fail altogether with Wingate ?" "Well ?" "Supposing you then pass him on to me and I succeed in getting him to sell the shares?
What about it ?" "It will be worth a thousand pounds to you," Phipps declared.
"Two!" Phipps shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't bargain," he said, "but two let it be--that is, of course, on condition that I have previously failed." Dredlinton's dull eyes glittered.

The slight contraction of his lips did nothing to improve his appearance.
"I shall do my best," he promised.
There was a knock at the door.

A clerk from outside presented himself.

As he held the door for a moment ajar, a wave of tangled sounds swept into the room,--the metallic clash of a score of typewriters, the shouting and bargaining of eager customers, the tinkle of telephones in the long series of cubicles.
"Mr.Wingate is here to see you, sir," the young man announced.
"You can show him in," Peter Phipps directed..