human
To be sought after as you are--to have so many men running out here to find you; to be consulted by so many----
gpt
Do you know why they seek me? Because I make money for them, Alice. They would run after anybody that could make them money. But they are wolves and if I lost for them they would try to tear me to pieces. No man is so alone as the man the public follows for a day even while it hates or fears him. And the man the bankers like is the man that can make money for them; their friendship is as cold and thin as autumn ice.
human
But even then, to have the ability for making money and doing magnificent things; to be able to succeed where so many men fail--it seems so wonderful to me.
gpt
Don’t cherish any illusions about it. Everyone that makes money must be guilty of a thousand cold-blooded things, a thousand sharp turns, a thousand cruelties; it’s a game of cruelties. Fortunately, I’m not a brilliant success in that line, anyway; people merely think I am. The ideal money-maker always is and always will be a man without a temper, without a heart, and with an infusion, in our day, of hypocrisy. He takes refuge in hypocrisy because the public hates him and he is forced to do it to keep from hating himself. When public opinion gets too strong for him he plays to it. When it isn’t too strong, he plays to himself. I can’t do that; I have too much vanity to play to anybody. And the recollection of a single defeat rankles above the memory of a thousand victories. This is all wrong--far, far from the ideal of money getting; in fact, I’m not a professional in the game at all--merely an amateur. A very successful man should never be trusted anyway.
human
Why not?
gpt
Because success comes first with him. It comes before friendship and he will sacrifice you to success without a pang.
human
What is it?
gpt
I was thinking of how I am impressed sometimes by the most unexpected things. You could never imagine what most put me in awe of you before I met you.
human
There must have been a severe revulsion of feeling when you did meet me,
gpt
We were going up the river in your yacht and Mr. McCrea was showing us the refineries. All that I then knew of you was what I had read in newspapers about calculating and cold-blooded trust magnates. Mr. McCrea was pointing out the different plants as we went along.
human
The river is very pretty at the Narrows.
gpt
First, we passed the independent houses. They kept getting bigger and bigger until I couldn’t imagine anything to overshadow them and I began to get frightened and wonder what your refineries would be like. Then, just as we turned at the island, Mr. McCrea pointed out a perfectly huge cluster of buildings and said those were the Kimberly plants. Really, they took my breath away. And in the midst of them rose that enormous oblong chimney-stack. A soft, lazy column of smoke hovered over it--such as hovers over Vesuvius. She smiled at the remembrance.
human
But the repose and size of that chimney seemed to me like the strength of the pyramids. When we steamed nearer I could read, near the top, the great terra-cotta plaque: KIMBERLYS AND COMPANY. Then I thought: Oh, what a tremendous personage Mr. Robert Kimberly must be!
gpt
The chimney is yours.
human
Oh, no, keep it, pray--but it really did put me wondering just what you were like.
gpt
It must have been an inspiration that made me build that chimney. The directors thought I would embarrass the company before we got the foundations in. I didn’t know then whom I was building it for, but I know now; and if you got a single thrill out of it the expenditure is justified. And I think mention of the thrill should go into the directors’ minutes on the page where they objected to the bill--we will see about that. But you never expected at that moment to own the chimney, did you? You shall. I will have the trustees release it from the general mortgage and convey it to you.
human
And speaking of Vesuvius, you never dreamed of a volcano lying in wait for you beneath the lazy smoke of that chimney, did you? And that before very long you would not alone own the chimney but would be carrying the volcano around in your vanity bag?
gpt
You have been in town to-day,
human
Yes; a conference this morning on the market. Something extraordinary happened.
gpt
In the market?
human
Market conditions are bad enough, but this was something personal.
gpt
Tell me about it.