“He is my cousin.”
“Ah.” There was no family resemblance, but Oliver was immaculately groomed, his well-tailored clothes pressed and brushed, his hair oiled and combed, his shoes shiny: no doubt he modeled himself on his successful older cousin. “Well, I hope you enjoy working with us.”
“Thank you.”
Hugh was thoughtful as he returned to his own office on the next floor up. Edward needed all the help he could get, but Hugh was a little bothered at having a cousin of Micky’s in such a potentially influential position at the bank.
His unease was vindicated a few days later.
Once again it was Jonas Mulberry who told him what was going on in the Partners’ Room. Mulberry came into Hugh’s room with a schedule of payments the bank had to make in London on behalf of the U.S. government, but his real reason was to talk. His spaniel face was longer than ever as he said: “I don’t like it, Mr. Hugh. South American bonds have never been good.”
“We’re not launching a South American bond, are we?”
Mulberry nodded. “Mr. Edward proposed it and the partners have agreed.”
“What’s it for?”
“A new railroad from the capital city, Palma, to Santamaria Province.”
“Where the provincial governor is Papa Miranda….”
“The father of Mr. Edward’s friend Señor Miranda.”
“And the uncle of Edward’s clerk Simon Oliver.”
Mulberry shook his head disapprovingly. “I was a clerk here when the Venezuelan government defaulted on its bonds fifteen years ago. My father, God rest his soul, could remember the Argentine default of 1828. And look at Mexican bonds — they pay dividends now and again. Whoever heard of bonds that paid out now and again?”
Hugh nodded. “Anyway, investors who like railroads can get five and six percent on their money in the United States — why go to Cordova?”
“Exactly.”
Hugh scratched his head. “Well, I’ll try to find out what they’re thinking about.”
Mulberry flourished a bundle of papers. “Mr. Samuel asked for a summary of liabilities on Far East acceptances. You could take the figures to him.”
Hugh grinned. “You think of everything.” He took the papers and went down to the Partners’ Room.
Only Samuel and Joseph were there. Joseph was dictating letters to a shorthand writer and Samuel was poring over a map of China. Hugh put the report on Samuel’s table and said: “Mulberry asked me to give you this.”
“Thank you.” Samuel looked up and smiled. “Something else on your mind?”
“Yes. I’m wondering why we’re backing the Santamaria railroad.”
Hugh heard Joseph pause in his dictation, then resume.
Samuel said: “It’s not the most attractive investment we’ve ever launched, I grant you, but with the backing of the Pilaster name it should go off all right.”
“You could say that of just about any issue that is proposed to us,” Hugh objected. “The reason we have such a high reputation is that we never do offer the investors a bond that is only ‘all right.’”
“Your uncle Joseph feels that South America may be ready for a revival.”
Hearing his name, Joseph joined in. “This is a toe dipped into the water to feel the temperature.”
“It’s risky, then.”
“If my great-grandfather had never taken a risk he would not have put all his money into one slave ship and there would be no such thing as Pilasters Bank today.”
Hugh said: “But since then, Pilasters has always left it to smaller, more speculative houses to dip their toes into unknown waters.”
Uncle Joseph did not like to be argued with and he replied in an irritated tone: “One exception will not harm us.”
“But the willingness to make exceptions may harm us deeply.”
“That’s not for you to judge.”
Hugh frowned. His instinct had been right: the investment did not make commercial sense, and Joseph could not justify it. So why had they done it? As soon as he put the question to himself that way he saw the answer. “You’ve done this because it’s Edward, haven’t you? You want to encourage him, and this is the first deal he has come up with since you made him a partner, so you’re letting him do it, even though it’s a poor prospect.”
“It’s not your place to question my motives!”
“It’s not your place to risk other people’s money as a favor to your son. Small investors in Brighton and Harrogate will put up the money for this railroad, and they will lose everything if it fails.”
“You’re not a partner, so your opinion oil these matters is not sought.”
Hugh hated people to shift their ground during a discussion and he responded waspishly. “I’m a Pilaster, though, and when you damage the good name of the bank you injure me.”
Samuel cut in: “I think you’ve probably said enough, Hugh—”
Hugh knew he should shut up but he could not restrain himself. “I’m afraid I haven’t said enough.” He heard himself shouting and tried to lower his voice. “You’re dissipating the bank’s reputation by doing this. Our good name is our greatest asset. To use it up in this way is like spending your capital.”
Uncle Joseph was now beyond civility. “Don’t you dare stand here in my bank and lecture me on the principles of investment, you insolent young whippersnapper. Get out of this room.”
Hugh stared at his uncle for a long moment. He was furious and depressed. Foolish, weak Edward was a partner, and leading the bank into bad business deals with the help of his injudicious father, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Boiling with frustration, Hugh turned and left the room, slamming the door.
Ten minutes later he went to ask Solly Greenbourne for a job.
He was not certain Greenbournes would take him on. He was an asset that any bank would covet, because of his contacts in the United States and Canada, but bankers felt it was not quite gentlemanly to pirate top managers from their rivals. In addition, the Greenbournes might fear that Hugh would tell secrets to his family at the dinner table, and the fact that he was not Jewish could only increase that fear.
However, Pilasters had become a dead-end street for him. He had to get out.
It had rained earlier but by midmorning the sun was out, and steam rose from the horse manure that carpeted the streets of London. The architecture of the City was a mixture of grand classical buildings and tumbledown old houses: the Pilaster building was the grand type, Greenbournes the other. You would not have guessed that Greenbournes Bank was bigger and more important than Pilasters from the appearance of the head office. The business had started, three generations ago, lending to fur importers out of two rooms of an old house in Thames Street. Whenever more space was needed they simply took over another house in the row, and now the bank occupied four adjacent buildings and three others nearby. But more business was done in these ramshackle houses than in the ostentatious splendor of the Pilaster building.
Inside there was none of the devotional hush of Pilasters’ banking hall. Hugh had to fight his way through a crowd of people in the lobby, like petitioners waiting to see a medieval king, every one of them convinced that if only he could get a word with Ben Greenbourne, present his case or pitch his proposal, he could make a fortune. The zigzag corridors and narrow staircases of the interior were obstructed by tin boxes of old files, cartons of stationery and demijohns of ink, and every spare cubbyhole had been made into an office for a clerk. Hugh found Solly in a large room with an uneven floor and a wonky window looking out over the river. Solly’s bulk was half hidden behind a desk piled with papers. “I live in a palace and work in a hovel,” Solly said ruefully. “I keep trying to persuade Father to commission a purpose-built office like yours, but he says there’s no profit in property.”
Hugh sat on a lumpy sofa and accepted a large glass of expensive sherry. He was uncomfortable, because in the back of his mind he was thinking about Maisie. He had seduced her before she became Solly’s wife and he would have done it again afterwards if she had let him. But all that was over now, he told himself. Maisie had locked the door at Kingsbridge Manor, and he had married Nora. He did not intend to be an unfaithful husband.
Still he felt awkward.