Chapter 10
“Yes, Mr. Bidulph, a simple operation on change in the American style,” said Kin-Fo to the agent of the insurance company.
“Well played, indeed; for every one was taken in,” said the Honorable William J. Bidulph, with the smile of a connoisseur.
“Even my correspondent,” answered Kin-Fo. “It was a make-believe suspension of payment, sir, a make-believe failure, and make-believe news.
A week afterwards they paid with open doors. The stock, which had depreciated eighty per cent, had been bought up at the lowest rate by the Central Bank; and, when people came to ask the director the cause of the failure, he answered amiably, ‘One hundred and seventy-five per cent.’ This is what my correspondent has written in this letter, which arrived only this morning, just as I thought myself
