When I had finished, the banker resumed, only to
say, as he rose from his chair to bid us good-night: "In any average
assembly of Americans the greatest millionaire would take the eyes of all
from the greatest statesman, the greatest poet, or the greatest soldier we
ever had. That," he added to the Altrurian, "will account to you for many
things as you travel through our country."
IX
The next time the members of our little group came together, the
manufacturer began at once upon the banker:
"I should think that our friend the professor, here, would hardly like
that notion of yours, that business, as business, has nothing to do with
the education of a gentleman. If this is a business man's country, and if
the professor has nothing in stock but the sort of education that business
has no use for, I should suppose that he would want to go into some other
line."
The banker mutely referred the matter to the professor, who said, with
that cold grin of his which I hated:
"Perhaps we shall wait for business to purge and live cleanly. Then it
will have some use for the education of a gentleman."
"I see," said the banker, "that I have touched the quick in both of you,
when I hadn't the least notion of doing so.
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