ce
off your mind, you'll be more sociable."

"A man's thoughts are his own, Mr. Bolt. I'm not so fond of talking
about myself as you seem to be."

"Oh, I can talk, or I can listen. But you won't do neither. Pretty
company YOU are, a-hatching of your egg."

"Well, sir," said the meek woman to Henry, "the rough gentleman he is
right. If you are in trouble, the best way is to let your tongue put it
off your heart."

"I'm sure you are very kind," said Henry, "but really my trouble is one
of those out-of-the-way things that do not interest people. However, the
long and the short is, I'm an inventor. I have invented several things,
and kept them dark, and they have paid me. I live at Hillsborough.
But now I have found a way of grinding long saws and circular saws by
machinery, at a saving of five hundred per cent labor. That saving of
labor represents an enormous profit--a large fortune; so I have
patented the invention at my own expense. But I can't work it without a
capitalist. Well, I have ransacked London, and all the moneyed men shy
me. The fools will go into railways, and bubbles, and a lot of things
that are blind chance, but they won't even study my drawings and
figures, and I made it clear enough too."

"I'm not of their mind then," said Bolt. "My rule is never to let
another man work my money. No railway shares nor gold mines for Ben
Bolt. My money goes with me, and I goes with my money."

"Then you are a man of sense; and I only wish you had money enough to go
into this with me."

"How do you know how much money I've got? You show me how to turn twenty
thousand into forty thousand, or forty thousand into eighty thousand,
and I'll soon find the money."

"Oh, I could show you how to turn fifteen thousand into fifty thousand."
He then unlocked his black bag, and showed Bolt some drawings that
represented the grinders by hand at work on long saws and circular
saws. "This," said he, "is the present system." He then pointed out its
defects. "And this," said he, "is what I propose to substitute." Then
he showed him drawings of his machines at work. "And these figures
represent the saving in labor. Now, in this branch of cutlery, the labor
is the manufacturer's main expense. Make ten men grind what fifty used,
you put forty workmen's wages in your pocket."

"That's tall talk."

"Not an inch taller than the truth."

Mr. Bolt studied the drawings, and, from obstreperous, became quite
quiet and absorbed. Presen