THE DERSINGHAMS AT HOME 111

many of them, who knew about all kinds of things and
were ready to enclose the most astonishing testimonials,
who admitted that the furnishing trade and veneers and
inlays were all new to them but who felt that they
could soon learn all there was to know, and in the mean-
time were anxious to show how they could command
men and to display their unusual ability to organise.
And, last of all, there were the public school men, fellows
who knew nothing about veneers and inlays and did not
even pretend to care about them, but pointed out that
they could drive cars, manage an estate, organise any-
thing or anybody, and were willing to go out East, being
evidently under the impression that Twigg and Der-
singham had probably a couple of tea plantations as weir
as a business in veneers and inlays. These corre-
spondents expressed themselves in every imaginable sort
of handwriting and on every conceivable kind of note-
paper, from superior parchment to dirty little pink bits
that had been saved up in a box on the mantelpiece,
but in one particular they were all alike: they were all
keen, all energetic.

"This tells you something about the old country,
doesn't it?" said Mr. Golspie, who always talked as if
he came from some newer one. He and Mr. Dersing-
ham and Mr. Smeeth had been going through the
pile.

"It's only the slump/' said Mr. Dersingham, who was
feeling optimistic these days. "It's not so bad as it was,
is it, Smeeth?"

"I suppose it isn't, really, Mr. Dersingham." But
Mr. Smeeth sounded rather doubtful. These letters had
given him another glimpse of the dark gulf. It was a
sight that left him feeling shaky.