In our business battles we don't take off our hats to the
other side and say, 'Gentlemen of the French Guard, have the goodness to
fire.' That may be war, but it is not business. We seize all the
advantages we can; very few of us would actually deceive; but if a fellow
believes a thing, and we know he is wrong, we do not usually take the
trouble to set him right, if we are going to lose anything by undeceiving
him. That would not be business. I suppose you think that is dreadful?" He
turned smilingly to the minister.
"I wish--I wish," said the minister, gently, "it could be otherwise."
"Well, I wish so, too," returned the banker. "But it isn't. Am I right or
am I wrong?" he demanded of the manufacturer, who laughed.
"I am not conducting this discussion. I will not deprive you of the
floor."
"What you say," I ventured to put in, "reminds me of the experience of a
friend of mine, a brother novelist. He wrote a story where the failure of
a business man turned on a point just like that you have instanced. The
man could have retrieved himself if he had let some people believe that
what was so was not so, but his conscience stepped in and obliged him to
own the truth.
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