Perhaps we shall be able to
induce you and Mrs. Johnson to come back and take a little supper with
us?"
Mr. Johnson pulled himself together.
"Very kind of you, old cocky," he declared, tremulously. "Been striking
it thick, haven't you?"
Burton nodded.
"Dropped across a little thing in the city," he remarked, flicking the
dust from the sleeve of his coat. "Jolly good spec it turned out. They
made me a director. It's this new Menatogen Company. Heard of it?"
"God bless my soul, of course I have!" Johnson exclaimed. "Millions in
it, they say. The shares went from par to four premium in half an hour.
I know a man who had a call of a hundred. He's cleared four hundred
pounds."
Mr. Burton nodded in a most condescending manner.
"That so?" he remarked. "I've a matter of ten thousand myself, besides
some further calls, but I'm not selling just yet. If your friend's got
any left, you can tell him from me--and I ought to know as I'm a
director--that the shares will be at nine before long. Shouldn't wonder
if they didn't go to twenty. It's a grand invention. Best thing I ever
touched in my life."
Johnson had been finding it chilly a short time ago but he took off his
hat now and mopped his forehead.
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