That's what I want to talk
about," said Dave, with rising heat. "If business has to be done that
way, then I say, to hell with business!"
"I asked you not to quarrel," Conward returned, with remarkable
composure. "I suggested that we get at the facts. That seems to be a
business suggestion. I think we are agreed that the boom is over.
Values are on the down grade. The boomsters are departing. They are
moving on to new fields, as we should have done a year or two ago, but
I confess I had a sort of sentiment for this place. Well--that is the
price of sentiment. It won't mix with business. Now, granting that
the boom is over, where do we stand?
"We are rated as millionaires, but we haven't a thousand dollars in the
bank at this moment. This," he lifted Mrs. Hardy's cheque, "would have
seen us over next pay day, but you say the firm must have nothing to do
with it. And which is the more immoral--since you have spoken of
morality--to accept labour from clerks whom you can't pay, or to sell
property to women who say they want it and are satisfied with the
price? We make our income by selling property. As soon as the sales
stop, the income stops. Well, the sales have stopped. But the expense
goes on. We have literally thousands of unsettled contracts. We must
keep our staff together. We have debts to pay, and we owe it to our
creditors to make collections so that we can pay those debts, and we
can't make collections without staff.
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