"I have come to think that it might be well were women taught the elements of investing as they are now taught French and Music. I would not have the French and Music dropped, but I would add the other. It might be more of a protection to women than being able to read a French novel, and perhaps some day we shall have it so. But of course it had been left totally out of Ethel's education; and at first she merely received my instruction and took my opinions. It was not long, however, before she began to entertain some of her own, obliging me not infrequently to reason with her. I very well remember the first occasion that this happened."
"We had been as usual talking about stocks, as we walked on the Riverside Drive on a Sunday afternoon in May. Ethel had been for some moments silent. 'Richard,' she finally began, 'if I had had the naming of these things, I should never have called them securities. Insecurities comes a great deal nearer what they are. What right has a thing that says on its face it is worth a thousand dollars to go bobbing up and down in the way most of them do? I think that securities is almost sarcastic. And have you noticed the price of those Petunias?'"
"I had, of course, noticed it; but I had not mentioned it to Ethel. 'I read the papers now,' she explained, 'morning and evening. Of course the market is off a little on account of the bank statement. But that is not enough to account for the Petunias.'"
"'Ethel, you are nervous,' I said. 'And it is the papers which make you so. The Petunias are a first lien on the whole property, of which the assessed valuation--'"
"'What is the good,' she interrupted, 'of a first lien on something which depends on politics for its existence, if the politicians change their minds?Did you not see that bill they're thinking of passing?' I was startled by what Ethel told me, for the article in the paper had escaped my notice. But Mr. Beverly explained it to me in a couple of minutes. 'Ha!' he jovially exclaimed, on my entering his office on Monday morning; 'you want to know about Petunias. They opened at 85 I see.' He then ran the tape from the ticker through his clean strong hands. 'Here they are again. Five thousand sold at 83. Now, if they go to 70, I'll very likely take ten thousand more for mother. It's all Frank Smith's bluff, you know. He wants a jag of the water-works stock, more than they say they agreed he should have. So he's shaking this bill over them, which would allow the city to build its own water-plant, and of course run the present company out of business. Not a thing in it! All bluff. He'll get the stock, I suppose. What's that?' he broke off to a clerk who came with a message. 'Wants 500 preferred does he? Buyer 30? Very well, he can't have it. Say so from me. Now,' he resumed to me, 'take a cigar by the way. And don't buy any more Petunias until I tell you the right moment. Do you see where your Amalgamated Electric has gone to?'"
"I had seen this. It had scored a 20-point rise since my purchase of it;and I felt very sorry that I had not taken Mr. Beverly's advice and bought a thousand shares. It had been on a day when I had felt unaccountably cautious, and I had taken only two hundred and fifty shares of Amalgamated Electric. There are days when one is cautious and days when one is venturesome; and they seem to have nothing to do with results."
"'They're going to increase the dividend,' said Mr. Beverly, as I smoked his excellent cigar. 'It's good for twenty points higher by the end of the week. I had just got mother a few more shares.'"
"I left Mr. Beverly's office the possessor of two thousand shares of Amalgamated Electric, and also entirely reassured about my Petunias. He always made me feel happy."
"His keen laughing brown eyes, and crisp well-brushed hair, and big somewhat English way of chaffing (he had gone to Oxford, where he had rowed on a winning crew) carried a sense of buoyant prosperity that went with his wiry figure and good smart London clothes. His face was almost as tawny as an Indian's with the outdoor life that he took care to lead. I was always flattered when he could spare any time to clap me on the shoulder and crack a joke."
"Amalgamated Electric had risen five more points before the board closed that afternoon. This was the first news that I told Ethel."
"'Richard,' said she, 'I wish you would sell that stock to-morrow.'"
"But this I saw no reason for; and on Tuesday it had gained seven points further. Ethel still more strongly urged me to sell it. I must freely admit that." And the narrator paused reflectively.
"Thank you, Richard," said Ethel from the sofa. "And I admit that I could give you no reason for my request, except that it all seemed so sudden. And--yes--there was one other thing. But that was even more silly."
"I believe I know what you mean," replied Richard, "and I shall come to it presently. If any one was silly, it was not you."
"I did not sell Amalgamated Electric on Wednesday, and on Thursday a doubt about the increased dividend began to be circulated. The stock, nevertheless, after a forenoon of weakness, rallied. Moreover a check for my first dividend came from the Pollyopolis Heat, Light, Power, Paving, Pressing, and Packing Company."
"'What a number of things it does!' exclaimed Ethel, when I showed her the company's check."
"'Yes,' I replied, and quoted Browning to her: ''Twenty-nine Distinct damnations. One sure if the other fails.' Beverly's mother has a lot of it.'"
"But Ethel did not smile. 'Richard,' she said, 'I do wish you had more investments with ordinary simple names, like New York and New Haven, or Chicago and Northwestern.' And when I told her that I thought this was really unreasonable, she was firm. 'Yes,' she replied, 'I don't like the names--not most of them, at least. Dutchess and Columbia Traction sounds pretty well; and besides that, of course one knows how successful these electric railways are. But take the Standard Egg Trust, and the Patent Pasteurised Infant Rubber Feeder Company.'"
