"The climate is good enough for me," he said. "Personally, I don't want
to live in the particular locality you name. Have a cigar and tell me
why you called--the old business, I suppose? Well, you know my opinion
about that. I want none of it. I don't believe it is honest business,
and I think that if we did it, we might all end in the dock. So you
know my mind before we begin."
The Count heard him patiently, but did not seem in any way disturbed.
"There is very little business that is honest," he said; "practically
none at all. Look at politics, the Church, art, the sciences--those who
flourish are the imposters, while your honest men are foolish enough to
starve in garrets. If a man will undertake nothing that is open to the
suspicion of self-interest, he should abandon all his affairs at once
and retire to a monastery, where possibly he will discover that the
prior is cheating the abbot and the cellarer cheating them both. You
have a great business opportunity, and if anybody suffers it is only
the Government, which you must admit is a pure abstraction--suggesting
chiefly a company of undiscovered rascals.
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