But granted his harmless qualities doesn't that banker strike you as a splendid instance of my argument?
"But I should suggest a suspension of your critique of the banker, for here he comes."
"Now that sort of thing," observed the banker weightily, "would never be allowed in England; perhaps, after all, we had better choose another route.
"Monsieur," replied the banker, drawing himself up with a haughty air, "the extent of my resources has never yet been questioned."
The banker thought the time had come for him to take the upper hand.
Now, sir, you have but to say the word, and I will spare you all uneasiness by presenting my letter of credit to one or other of these two firms." The blow had struck home, and Danglars was entirely vanquished; with a trembling hand he took the two letters from the count, who held them carelessly between finger and thumb, and proceeded to scrutinize the signatures, with a minuteness that the count might have regarded as insulting, had it not suited his present purpose to mislead the banker. "Oh, sir," said Danglars, after he had convinced himself of the authenticity of the documents he held, and rising as if to salute the power of gold personified in the man before him, -- "three letters of unlimited credit!
It's this sort of thing this tyrannical spirit, wanting to play bishop and
banker everywhere--it's this sort of thing makes a man's name stink."
"But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with the coronet in his hands?"
The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror.
'I cannot object,' said Mrs General--'though even that is disagreeable to me--to Mr Dorrit's inquiring, in confidence of my friends here, what amount they have been accustomed, at quarterly intervals, to pay to my credit at my bankers'.'
'It would therefore,' said Mrs General, 'be necessary to add a third more to the payment (whatever its amount may prove to be), which my friends here have been accustomed to make to my bankers'.'
At the height of the storm, on a Saturday evening, the New York
bankers met in an almost desperate conference.
