William strove for his business tone of voice. 'Mrs. Brookes, may I say how sorry I was to learn of your husband's death and how much I regret the necessity of asking you to come here today., Two lies in a single sentence that would have been the truth five minutes before. He waited to hear her speak.

'Thank you, Mr. Kane.' Her voice was soft and had a gentle, low pitch.

'I am aware of my obligations to your bank and I assure you that I will do everything in my power to meet them.'

William said nothing, hoping she would go on speaking. She did not,,so he outlined how he had disposed of Max Brookes' estate. She listened with downcast eyes.

'Now, Mrs. Brookes, you acted as guarantor for your husband's loan and that brings us to the question of your per - sonal assets! He consulted his file. 'You have some eighty thousand dollars in investments - your own family money, I believe - and seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty - six dollars in your personal account!

She looked up. Tour grasp of my financial position is commendable, Mr.

Kane. You should add, however, Buckhurst Park, our house in Florida, which was in Max's name, and some quite valuable jewellery of my own. I estimate that all together I am worth the three hundred thousand dollars you still require, and I have made arrangements to realise the full amount as soon as possible!

There was only the slightest tremor in her voice; William gazed at her in admiration.

'Mrs. Brookes, the bank has no intention of relieving you of your every last possession. With your agreement we would like to sell your stocks and bonds. Everything else you mentioned, including the house~ we consider should remain in your possession!

She hesitated. 'I appreciate your generosity, Mr. Kane. However, I have no - wish to remain under any obligation to your bank or to leave my husband's name under a cloud.' The little tremor again, but quickly suppressed. 'Anyway, I have decided to sell the house in Florida and return to my parents' home as soon as possible!

William's pulse quickened to hear that she would be coming back to Boston. 'In that case, perhaps we can reach some agreement about the proceeds of the sale,' he said.

'We can do that now,' she said flatly. Tou must have the entire amount!

William played for another meeting. 'Don't let's make too hasty a decision. I think it might be wise to consult my colleagues and discuss this with you again at a later date.'

She shrugged slightly. 'As you wish. I don~t really care about the money either way, and I wouldn't want to put you to any inconvenience!

William blinked. 'Mrs. Brookes, I must confess to have been surprised by your magnanimous attitude. At least allow me the pleasure of taking you to luncIL'

She smiled for the first time, revealing an unsuspected dimple in her right cheek. William gazed at it in delight and did his utmost to provoke its reappearance over a long lunch at the Ritz. By the time he returned to his desk, it was well past three o'clock.

'Long lunch, William,' commented Tony Simmons.

'Yes, the Brookes problem turned out to be trickier than I had expected!

'It looked fairly straightforward to me when I went over the papers,' said Simmon . 'She isn't complaining about our offer, is she? I thought we were being rather generous in the circumstances!

'Yes, she thought so too. I had to talk her out of divesting herself of her last dollar to swell our reserves? Tony Simmons stared. 'That doesn!t sound like the William Kane we all know and love so well. Still, there has never been a better time for the bank to be magnanimous!

William grimaced. Since the day of his arrival, he and Tony Simmons had been in growing disagreement about where the stock market was heading. The Dow Jones had been moving steadily upward since Herbert Hoover's election to the White House in November 1928. In fact, only ten days later, the New York stock exchange had a record of over six million shares volume in one day. But William was convinced that the upward trend, fuelled by the large influx of money from the automobile industry, would result in prices inflating to the point of instability. Tony Simmons, on the other hand, was confident that the boom would continue so that when William advocated caution at board meetings he was invariably overruled. However, with his trust money, he was free to follow his own intuition, and started investing heavily in land, gold, commodities and even in some carefully selected Impressionist paintings, leaving only fifty per cent of his cash in stocks.

When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York put out an edict declaring that they would not re - discount loans to those banks which were releasing money to their customers for the sole purpose. of speculation, William considered that the first nail had been driven into the speculator's coffin. He immediately reviewed the bank's lending programme and estimated that Kane and Cabot had over twenty - six million dollars out on such loans. He begged Tony Simmons to call in these amounts, certain that, with such a government regulation in operation, stock prices would inevitably fall in the long term. They nearly had a stand - up fight at the monthly board meeting, and William was voted down by twelve to two.