"Ivan Behrend, whether the undertaking you have engaged in succeeds or
not--I do not believe that it will succeed--you will have taken out of
my pocket a million--a million net. Besides this, you have squandered
five hundred gulden of your own money, without reckoning what is yet
to be spent. Let that be. You have done this by fixing the quotations
at par. It is true that the shares will neither be bought nor sold,
for both sides will be afraid, and will hold back; nevertheless, the
quotation will stand at par, and I am obliged to pay the difference on
this--that will cost me a million. But that is nothing; I have lost as
much before now, and recovered it again. One has only to play the
waiting game. If, however, in a fortnight's time you find that you
miscalculated your powers, and that your experiment fails, you have
only to let it be known, and I shall pay one million into your hand."

Ivan answered this contemptible proposal with business-like composure.

"Prince Sondersheim, the stock-exchange is, as I am well aware, a
privileged place. Here a man can say things without having any fear of
consequences. What a man says or does, what proposals he
makes--everything is, in a sense, allowable, and the ordinary rules
which govern the outside world do not apply. Here one man may ask the
other, 'How much do you ask for selling the honor of your company?'
and if the answer is, 'It is not for sale,' that is enough. Here there
is plain speaking; no one is offended at being asked to be an
accomplice in a robbery. It would be no reflection on his character;
he would assume no airs of righteousness, but simply answer, 'I really
haven't time.' If men quarrel, if they spit at one another, tear the
hats off one another's heads, that is nothing; it goes no further; no
one turns round to look at them. They wipe the spittle off their
faces, pick up their hats, and after half an hour walk about arm in
arm. No one remembers that they were fighting; it was only a little
'difference,' which led to an animated scene. Therefore, to the
proposal made by Sondersheim, the Bondavara coal-merchant, to Behrend,
the Bondavara coal-trader, there is but one answer, 'Sir, I cannot
entertain your offer.' Prince Waldemar Sondersheim will, however, do
well to remember not to repeat outside the stock-exchange such a
proposal to Ivan Behrend."

The prince laughed. "I guessed as much. I have often heard of you, and
if you behave well you shall hear how i