True, all would be changed as soon as he could endow the College for
Spiritual Pathology; matters, however, had not gone too well with "the
things that people bought in the place that was called the Stock
Exchange." In order to get on faster, it had been arranged that Ernest
should buy more of these things than he could pay for, with the idea
that in a few weeks, or even days, they would be much higher in value,
and he could sell them at a tremendous profit; but, unfortunately,
instead of getting higher, they had fallen immediately after Ernest
had bought, and obstinately refused to get up again; so, after a few
settlements, he had got frightened, for he read an article in some
newspaper, which said they would go ever so much lower, and,
contrary to Pryer's advice, he insisted on selling -at a loss of
something like L500. He had hardly sold when up went the shares again,
and he saw how foolish he had been, and how wise Pryer was, for if
Pryer's advice had been followed, he would have made instead of losing
it. However, he told himself, he must live and learn.
Then Pryer made a mistake. They had bought some shares, and the
shares went up delightfully for about a fortnight.
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