I may say
the office would not find even those few shares unwelcome."
"Well, you see, I don't know about that," said Bean. "You see, I had a
kind of an idea--"
"I think I may say they would take it not unkindly," said Tully.
"--of holding on to them," concluded Bean.
"Your letting them go for a fair price might not inconceivably react to
your advantage," suggested the luminous Tully.
"It is not impossible that I shall want them myself," responded Bean,
unconsciously adopting the Tully indirection.
"The office is not unwilling--" began Tully.
"I'll keep 'em a while," said Bean. "I have a sort of plan."
"I should not like to think it possible--"
Bean was tired of Tully. What was the man trying to get at, anyway? He
didn't know; but he would shut him off. His mind leaped with an
inspiration.
"I can imagine nothing of less consequence," said Bean.
He was at once proud of the snappy way the words came out. Breede, he
thought, could hardly have been snappier. He glared at Tully, who looked
shocked, hurt, and disgusted. Tully sighed and walked back to his own
desk, as if the ice cracked beneath his small feet at every step.
Bean resumed his work, with the air of one forgetting a past annoyance.
But he was not forgetting. He might let them have the stock; he had
never thought any too well of that express directorship; but let them
send some one that could talk straight.
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