THE STEADFAST HEART
weeks that worried him. Money, money, money. Everywhere he turned were more insistent demands for ready cash—and he was rapidly approaching a moment when he would have no more cash to supply. He was a selfish man, a shortsighted man. At this time he could have had capital, not in abundance, for Rainbow was not wealthy, but in sufficient sums to carry on his work—but, according to his nature, he would not share. It was to be all his own, to him, and undivided…. Crane was honest—as men go—ready, perhaps, to strike a shrewd bargain, prepared to take advantage of opportunity in almost any guise, so long as it did not display too baldly the face of trickery—nevertheless it would have been unfair to the man, much as one might dislike him, to say at this date, that he was other than ordinarily honest….
It was on the fifteenth of July that Judge Crane made formal announcement of the incorporation of the Rainbow Novelties Company, and opened its books for stock subscriptions. Verry was president of the new concern; Judge Crane its secretary-treasurer…. Nor was he disappointed in his ability to interest the village’s hoarded capital. Rainbow, with an enthusiasm which was foreign to it, but which doubtless was due to the presence in epidemic form of the microbe of speculation, came forward enthusiasti-
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