Mostyn stared excitedly. "I thought it would be a good thing, but I didn't expect him to find a buyer so soon."
Saunders smiled. "I know you thought so," he chuckled. "He is as happy as a school-boy. He is crazy to tell you about it. He thinks a lot of you. He swears by your judgment. In fact, he said plainly that he expected you to handle this money for him. He says he has some ideas he wants you to join him in. He sticks to it that you are the greatest financier in the South."
Mostyn drew his lips tight. "He is getting childish," he said, irritably. "I have no better judgment than any one else--Delbridge, for instance, is ahead of me."
"Delbridge is lucky," Saunders smiled. "They say he has made another good deal in cotton."
"How was that?" Mostyn shrugged his shoulders and stared, his brows lifted.
"Futures. I don't know how much he is in, but I judge that it is considerable. You can always tell by his looks when things are going his way, and I have never seen him in higher feather."
Mostyn suppressed a sullen groan. "That is what they are doing while I am lying around here like this," he reflected. "Mitchell thinks I am a financial wonder, does he? Well, he doesn't know me; Irene doesn't know me. Dolly doesn't dream--my God, I don't know myself! A few minutes ago I was sure that I would give up the world for her, and yet already I am a different man--changed--full of hell itself. I am a slave to my imagination. I don't know what I want."
Then he thought of the unopened letter in his pocket. Light as it was, he could all but feel its weight against his side. They were now at the gate of Saunders's house. No one was in sight. The tall white pillars of the Colonial porch gleamed like shafts of snow in the sunlight. It was a spacious building in fine condition; even the grass of the lawn and beds of flowers were well cared for.
"You'd better decide to stop," Saunders said, cordially. "I will soon get over my talk with the overseer, and then I'll take you around and show you some of the richest land in the South--black as your hat in some places. I wouldn't give this piece of property for all you and Delbridge and Mitchell ever can pile up. Both my grandfather and father died in the room up-stairs on the left of the hall. It seems sacred to me."