THEY   GO   HOME	559
"What did Mr. Gorstein say?"
"I told them as much as I could, and they laughed at
me, they did, honestly they did, they just laughed at me.
Pretended not to, pretended to be very sympathetic and
all that, but I knew. That fellow Gorstein's another
rotter, if you ask me. Very sorry and all that, hard luck
on us, but of course they'd bought what we'd offered
them, and they'd undertaken to supply their customers
and made contracts on what they'd bought from us, and
we'd have to deliver, and no nonsense about it. And
they practically told me that everybody else in the trade
would say the same thing, but only be a bit more damned
insolent about it. No, I see that now, plainly enough.
There's no getting out of it."
"But, Mr. Dersingham, it's a terrible position we're
in, it really is."
"Good God! man, you've no need to tell me that. It's
the foulest mess I ever dreamed of, and all because of
that dirty crook. Honestly, Smeeth, I don't pretend to
be a bruiser or anything of that sort, but if I saw that
chap now, I'd go for him. I'd either knock him down or
he'd have to knock me down. Have you been working
it all out? What does it look like?"
Mr. Smeeth now considered his totals and the full
implication of them for the first time. He handed the
papers across the table.
Mr. Dersingham, running a finger across his teeth and
allowing his jaw to drop, stared at them for several
minutes without saying a word. Then he queried one
or two figures, and Mr. Smeeth worked them out again,
for his benefit. The order book was referred to several
times. But there was no escaping from those totals,
"I've just been working out how we stand, too, Mr,