When he thought of his worldly am
bitions, he was profoundly regretful
that he had talked professionally with
Mr. Cullen. To be sure, the matter
had come up /casually and naturally,
and the opening had seemed too good
to be missed at the same time, Hil
liard couldn't help reflecting that It
had been premature. It might prove,
eventually, to have been just the prop
er course to produce results it might
be that Cullen would become so impa
tient that he couldn't be restrained,
and would leap without looking, and
leap further than he intended, and yet,
ever since that preliminary interview,
Hilliard had known that he had made
a breach in his own fortresses that
he had rendered It possible for an in
formal (and logical enough) Ihvesti
gation to begin, or for mild suspicion
to arise and gain momentum before
he had devised the means of combating
It And although Hllliard believed
implicitly in the goods he had to sell,
he knew the difficulty of the market
he knew how timorous is the average
Investor and he knew that there
luight very easily come a time at which
Ills harangue would be remembered,
and remembered adversely.
