The Man Who Lost Himself
as seated in the lounge of the Savoy Hotel, London, defeated
. Australian born, he had started life in a bank at Melbourne, gone to India for a trading ho
ver to London to press the business; he had interviewed men in brass hats, slow moving men who had turned him over to slower moving men. The Stringer Company, for so he dubbed himself and Aa
nger would have put the thing in the hands of Laurenson of Philadelphia, and their commission would have been enormous, a s
f-well, maybe, yet on behalf of this bluffer I would put it forward that he had risked everyth
ng all his business in a week, and if it failed-an idea which he scarcely entertained-on getting back th
ringer for funds, and had got as a
as that so
ple with no money worries, so he fancied. He was thinking about Stringer and his own position, with less than ten pou
, given three guesses you would have judged to be a Scotch free kirk minister in mufti; an actor i
atics and higher commercial methods, by correspondence, and, aiming to be a millionair
's own mental energy, the bodily energy of others into products or actions. Had this Government contract come off, he would have, and to his own pro
ing battles, you see and read of the work of a comparatively small number of men, gentlemen who wear frock
his own awful position, and was taking the glass from the salver when a very well dressed man of his
eet him. The stranger, also, seemed for a second under the same obsession, but only for a second; he made a half pau
himself. "Where on earth have I met him? and he re
a and rose, and then strolled off not heeding much in what direction, till he reached the book and newspaper stand whe
rs in the American bar, with a
him in its charge, comforting him and conducting his steps, and now the bar keeper, a cheery person, combined with the champagne cocktail, the cheeries
me up to the counter, placed half a crown upon it and was
er whom he had seen in the lounge, the stranger whose face
ravel and the forming of chance acqu
lounge and I'm sure I've met you somew