Mr. Prohack by Arnold Bennett
page 134 of 489 (27%)
page 134 of 489 (27%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
As editor of a financial weekly, F.F. naturally had to keep well under
control his world-sadness. High finance cannot prosper in an atmosphere of world-sadness, and hates it. F.F. ought never to have become the editor of a financial weekly; but he happened to be an expert statistician, an honest man and a courageous man, and an expert in the pathology of stock-markets, and on this score his proprietors excused the slight traces of world-sadness occasionally to be found in the paper. He might have left his post and obtained another; but to be forced by fate to be editor of a financial weekly was F.F.'s chief grievance in life, and he loved a good grievance beyond everything. "But, my dear fellow," said F.F. with his melancholy ardent glance, when Mr. Prohack had replied suitably to his opening question. "I'd no idea you'd been unwell. I hope it isn't what's called a breakdown." "Oh, no!" Mr. Prohack laughed nervously. "But you know what doctors are. A little rest has been prescribed." F.F. gazed at him softly compassionate, as if to indicate that nothing but trouble could be expected under the present political regime. They examined the tape together. "Things can't go on much longer like this," observed F.F. comprehensively, in front of the morning's messages from the capitals of the world. "Still," said Mr. Prohack, "we've won the war, haven't we?" "I suppose we have," said F.F. and sighed. |
|