Free The Rich Are with You Always by Malcolm Macdonald

embarrassed to refuse and loath to grant." She smiled her gratitude. "I'd not have pressed it."
      "I'm certain you'd ask nothing dishonourable," Hudson warned.
      "Indeed," she said. "I'm very sensible of your honour, which I know would prevent you from taking advantage of anything you might hear from me."
      For the first time he saw where he had been manoeuvred. He looked steadily at her until, apparently struck by a sudden thought, he smiled. "Oh, I can't promise that," he said.
      She pressed her lips together and waited.
      "The day after you get control of that fund I shall be knocking at your door!"
      She joined his laughter. "Better come the day before," she warned. "Day after may be too late."
      His laughter quickly died. "I believe that," he said.
      The time for chatting and joking was over. She gathered herself together and, sitting upright, said, "We are turning over the idea of going into foundry work on our own account." He showed only a polite and casual interest. "Nothing as yet is settled, but Rodet, whom I'm sure you know?" Hudson nodded. "Rodet has put a friend of his, Sir George Beador, in touch with us. There's a possible partnership in the venture. The interests are mutual."
      "Stockton!" Hudson interrupted. "Of course. That Beador." A satisfied look came over him. "Stockton, eh?"
      "Aye." Nora confirmed his pleasure. "Every scrap of iron we send inland will go over your metals. North out or south out." He rubbed his hands in pantomime. "So you've a further reason to wish us well."
      He pouted at that. "My own friendship would ensure my every assistance."
      Nora placated him. "I'm sure, Mr. Hudson, but a sound business reason always helps."
      He smiled again. "Why iron?" he asked.
      There were a dozen and one reasons for going into ironworks, but the one
    closest to Nora's heart was one that only another financial adept would understand. She had often wanted to put it to John, but he would have known at once that she was showing off, giving the most abstruse reason of all when the dozen simpler ones were compelling enough. Chambers, too, would understand, but he would also find some way to turn it against her. Now was her chance. Hudson would surely see it at once and admire her shrewdness.
      Casually, as if it were really too obvious, she said: "If we can hold our present stocks as a liability, balanced against such assets as unpaid debt on invoiced goods, we're in a much better position than if we just hold the same stock as a depreciating asset."
      He coughed and cleared his throat. "Yes," he said. "How true."
      To Nora it was barely credible that he did not grasp the point; yet he clearly did not. She pressed on at once, pushing this extraordinary discovery deeper. "Manufacturer's stock-in-trade does not automatically depreciate," she added.
      "That's clever," he said at length. His admiration was so quietly genuine that she knew beyond certainty this was the first time in his life the point had struck him.
      For her, it was a discovery of cardinal importance. On several occasions recently, she had been on the point of taking shares in a number of Hudson's lines; soon her mere intuitive distrust of him would have been unable to withstand the strong commercial arguments for investing in such huge success as Hudson had shown. But now it was clear that he was no genius at all. Just a clever lad who had found a tin whistle and had taught himself to play four or five tunes to perfection. He did not understand accounts; he merely knew a handful of impressive tricks. God be praised she had discovered the fact in time.
      Quickly, to prevent his becoming embarrassed, she said: "Stevenson tells me not to talk such French. He says if we take up foundry work, it'll be for the profit, not for tricks with the ledgers." She chuckled. "I daresay he's right. He usually is."
      "So it's not certain?" Hudson was relieved to be back on familiar ground.
      "It is