The speaker was a young man with a squarish face and thick hair parted accurately in the middle.

He was dressed in a thin grey suit and he was passing the tape between his fingers as it ran out.

The picture of him was impressed during that instant upon Thresk's mind, so that he could never afterwards forget it.
"Copper's up one point," he was saying, "that's fine.

Who's Captain Ballantyne, I wonder?
United Steel has dropped seven-eighths.

Well, that doesn't affect me," and so he ran on.
Thresk heard no more of what he said.