'You are the manager here in England?'
'No,--I am a member of the firm that manages it at San Francisco; but the real manager here is our chairman, Mr Melmotte.'
'Ah I have heard of him. He is a great man;--a Frenchman, is he not? There was a talk of inviting him to California. You know him, of course?'
'Yes,--I know him. I see him once a week.'
'I would sooner see that man than your Queen, or any of your dukes or lords. They tell me that he holds the world of commerce in his right hand. What power;--what grandeur!'
'Grand enough,' said Paul, 'if it all came honestly.'
'Such a man rises above honesty,' said Mrs Hurtle, 'as a great general rises above humanity when he sacrifices an army to conquer a nation. Such greatness is incompatible with small scruples. A pigmy man is stopped by a little ditch, but a giant stalks over the rivers.'
'I prefer to be stopped by the ditches,' said Montague.
'Ah, Paul, you were not born for commerce. And I will grant you this, that commerce is not noble unless it rises to great heights. To live in plenty by sticking to your counter from nine in the morning to nine at night, is not a fine life. But this man with a scratch of his pen can send out or call in millions of dollars. Do they say here that he is not honest?'
'As he is my partner in this affair perhaps I had better say nothing against him.'
'Of course such a man will be abused. People have said that Napoleon was a coward, and Washington a traitor. You must take me where I shall see Melmotte. He is a man whose hand I would kiss; but I would not condescend to speak even a word of reverence to any of your Emperors.'
'I fear you will find that your idol has feet of clay.'
'Ah,--you mean that he is bold in breaking those precepts of yours about coveting worldly wealth. All men and women break that commandment, but they do so in a stealthy fashion, half drawing back the grasping hand, praying to be delivered from temptation while they filch only a little, pretending to despise the only thing that is dear to them in the world. Here is a man who boldly says that he recognises no such law; that wealth is power, and that power is good, and that the more a man has of wealth the greater and the stronger and the nobler be can be. I love a man who can turn the hobgoblins inside out and burn the wooden bogies that he meets.'