A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

16 A QUEER RACE. underwriter, I accepted the offer without either hesitation or misgiving. But cautious Mr. Combie shook his head. ‘‘Tt’s a very fine thing,” he said, ‘‘ for a young man of fwo-and-twenty to get the writership of a company, and, though I sayit that should not say it—to our firm. you are taking a great responsibility on yourself, and you will need to be very prudent. fifty theusand pounds is not too much capital for an insurance company, and this is a time of inflation, and the shareholders will expect you to earn them big dividends. Between you and me, I have no great confidence in these new concerns. ‘They are go- ‘ing up like rockets, and some of them, I fear, will come down like sticks. But you are young, and if the Orien- tal and Occidental does not answer your expectations, you will still have the world before you, and I have always said that you are one of those chaps who will either make a spoon or spoil a horn.” But ‘Che senior meant kindly, and I thanked him warmly; but 1 was too much elated by my advancement to give due attention to his warnings, although I had good rea- son to remember them afterward. My elation did not, however, arise solely, or even chiefly, from professional pride and grafified ambition. ‘The fact is, I had lost my heart to Amy Mainwaring, a charming girl of eighteen, with peach-like cheeks, soft brown eyes, and golden hair; and being as impetuous in love as I was diligent in busi- ness, and Amy loving me as much as I loved her, I had made up my mind to marry at the earliest possible mo- ment—that is to say, as soon as the father gave his con- sent and i could afford to keep a wife. I thought the salary which | was now beginning to earn would enable me to do this easily. But Mr. Mainwaring did not quite see the matter in the same light. He said we were both absurdly young, and however well off I might be, we should be all the better for waiting awhile. Moreover, like Mr. Combie, he had not absolute confidence in the stability of the Oriental and Occidental. ‘’o my pressing entreaties he answered: ‘“* Let us see what a couple of years bring forth. will be quite young enough then, and the delay will give you a chance of laying something by for a rainy day.” ‘Two years! ‘lo Amy and me this seemed an eternity; You (€(0) m JOO <Si