"
In spite of himself, Ridgway's face betrayed him. It was a magnificent
opportunity, the thing he had dreamed of as the culmination of a lifetime
of fighting. Nobody knew better than he on how precarious a footing he
stood, on how slight a rock his fortunes might be wrecked. Here was his
chance to enter that charmed, impregnable inner circle of finance that in
effect ruled the nation. That Harley's suave friendliness would bear
watching he did not doubt for a moment, but, once inside, so his vital
youth told him proudly, he would see to it that the billionaire did not
betray him. A week ago he could have asked nothing better than this chance
to bloat himself into a some-day colossus. But now the thing stuck in his
gorge. He understood the implied obligation. Payment for his service to
Aline Harley was to be given, and the ledger
balanced. Well, why not? Had he not spent the night in a chaotic agony of
renunciation? But to renounce voluntarily was one thing, to be bought off
another.
He looked up and met Harley's thin smile, the smile that on Wall Street was
a synonym for rapacity and heartlessness, in the memory of which men had
committed murder and suicide.
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