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He had inside information. The manager of a mine in
South Africa had cabled to the senior partner of his firm
that the plant was uninjured. They would start working
again as soon as possible. It wasn’t a speculation, it was an
investment. To show how good a thing the senior partner
thought it Macalister told Philip that he had bought five
hundred shares for both his sisters: he never put them into
anything that wasn’t as safe as the Bank of England.
‘I’m going to put my shirt on it myself,’ he said.
The shares were two and an eighth to a quarter. He
advised Philip not to be greedy, but to be satisfied with a ten-
shilling rise. He was buying three hundred for himself and
suggested that Philip should do the same. He would hold
them and sell when he thought fit. Philip had great faith in
him, partly because he was a Scotsman and therefore by na-
ture cautious, and partly because he had been right before.
He jumped at the suggestion.
‘I daresay we shall be able to sell before the account,’ said
Macalister, ‘but if not, I’ll arrange to carry them over for
you.’
It seemed a capital system to Philip. You held on till you
got your profit, and you never even had to put your hand
in your pocket. He began to watch the Stock Exchange col-
umns of the paper with new interest. Next day everything
was up a little, and Macalister wrote to say that he had had
to pay two and a quarter for the shares. He said that the
market was firm. But in a day or two there was a set-back.
The news that came from South Africa was less reassuring,
and Philip with anxiety saw that his shares had fallen to

Of Human Bondage