to fight for their country. Thus two years in succession
rooms had gone unlet to everyone's immense dis-
appointment.
Kahn sighed; then he reread a letter, frowning:
*We have got ourselves to consider/ ran the letter.
'Roux, as you know, we cannot consult, nor does one
worry a man on active service, but on his behalf as
well as our own we must remind you that the money
we invested in your venture gives us every right. . . .'
He flting the thing down with a grunt of disgust.
Already so scared and the war just begun! Fine
friends, the despicable, cowardly fools! But the mora-
torium, ah, that was his friend, it might save him yet
and with him his business. There remained the affair
of the villas, pretty grim, but after all even that was
not hopeless. La Societe Fonciere du Midi could not
press for interest so long as hostilities continued,
and with peace there would come a house shortage, of
course. Taking up his pen he began to write:
'Cher Albert. Here and now I refuse to submit
. . / No, that would not do; he tore up the sheet.
€Cher Albert,5 he began all over again, CI can only
entreat you and Edouard to be patient. Of course I
regret having bought that new stock, but how could
I possibly foresee what has happened? And that being
so I must beg yet again that you will not delay in
sending the cheque; I cannot keep this place going on
nothing. You say that you have all risked your money
in my shop, but while the shop prospered you pros-
pered with it, and surely to despair at the first small
reverse in our fortunes, at a time like this, is bad
business. Have courage, I implore you to have
courage, my dear friends; with your help I can steer
the ship through the storm, I can bring our venture to
ultimate success . . .* In this vein he wrote on for
page after page until his hand ached, and his head
and heart with it.
35*