had saved him so far he now considered but a small
consolation; the war over, his property would be
seized, and even this war could not last for ever.

'Quelle misere . . . mon Dieu, quelle misere!'
he moaned, as large, womanish tears trickled through
his fingers.

Gossip had always been rife about Kahn since the
days when he had first divulged his g/and schemes,
and now it was raging throughout the town; everyone
knew of his desperate straits despite his efforts to throw
dust in their eyes, for all little communities seem to
possess a mysterious bureau of information.
For some time his fame as a man of affairs, as a
prophet and apostle of progress had been waning. For
some time they had held aloof from his shop, partly
because they had not wished to spend but partly because
they had begun to feel mistrustful; the goods he had
sold them had not worn well when compared with
Jouse's stalwart productions. Then again, they con-
sidered that his prophecies had not only been very
misleading but expensive. A prophet, they jeered,
should have foreseen the war and in consequence
not urged the spending of money. They were bitterly
disappointed in Kahn who had raised such high
hopes only to dash them. And as frequently happens
to those who serve their own ends by augmenting
the greed in others, Kahn himself became the
first victim of that greed — people whose pockets
he had failed to line had very naturally come to
dislike him.
But now that he was bankrupt, now that everyone
knew he had only possessed a fourth share in the
business, that in fact he had never been wealthy at
all, the dislike of him blazed with surprising vigour.
375