'You can't think of it,' she exclaimed, and the sound fell like a
knell on my ears.
'I think I must,' was his answer. 'We shall be cut out if we do not
get a footing there, and there is no one who can quite answer the
purpose.'
'Not that young Frith--'
'Ten to one but he is on his way home. Besides, if not, he has his
own work at Canton. We see our way to very considerable advantages,
if--'
'Advantages!' she interrupted. 'I hate speculation. I should have
thought you might be contented with your station; but that is the
worst of merchants,--they never know when to stop. I suppose your
ambition is to make this a great overgrown mansion, so that your
father would not know it again.'
'Certainly not that, mamma,' said Clarence smiling; 'it is the last
thing I should think of; but stopping would in this case mean going
backward.'
'Why can't Mr. Castleford send one of his own sons?'
'Probably Walter may come out by and by, but he has not experience
enough for this.'
Clarence had not in the least anticipated my mother's opposition,
for he had come to underestimate her affection for and reliance on
him. He had us all against him, for not only could we not bear to
part with him; but the climate of Hong-Kong was in evil repute, and
I had become persuaded that, with his knowledge of business, railway
shares and scrip might be made to realise the amount needed, but he
said, 'That is what _I_ call speculation.
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