The Lorimer Line Read Online Free PDF

from the city centre his thoughts were solely on the undesirability of being late. He had no premonition that the next hour would change the course of his life.
    A footman with a fine pair of calves, wearing the family’s green and gold livery, showed him to the lawn at the rear of the house where the chairman of Lorimer’s was waiting to greet his guests. Mr Lynch was hovering near at hand in order that the lowlier members of the staff could be introduced by name. David had met Mr Lorimer at the time of his appointment and had not been forgotten yet, but Mrs Lorimer was a stranger. Plump and pale, she gave him a gracious smile but had nothing to say. Mr Lynch led him the few steps necessary to present him to the daughter of the house.
    David had seen Margaret Lorimer on two or three occasions in her father’s carriage, but they had never spoken. As they exchanged politenesses he could tell that the occasion was a strain for her, but one on which she was determined to do her duty more conscientiously than hermother. Even so, he did not expect to be allotted very much of her time. The Lorimers had invited the staff of the bank, but they would prefer to converse with the directors. He had exchanged only a few words with her when he became conscious of Mr Crankshaw approaching with his wife and son. Taking this as his cue to bow and withdraw, he noticed just in time that the chairman’s daughter was deliberately turning away from the Crankshaws.
    â€˜May I show you our gardens, Mr Gregson?’ She began to move across the grass even as she spoke, as though unaware that anyone else might be seeking her attention. The flush on her freckled face revealed, however, that this was not the case.
    He wondered for a moment, as he thanked her for the privilege and offered his arm, whether there was any significance in the small incident. Lorimers might possibly be able to quarrel with Crankshaws, but Crankshaws could in no circumstances afford to quarrel with Lorimers. David’s responsibilities at the bank covered the checking not only of the ordinary deposit accounts, but also of the far larger amounts which Lorimer’s lent to a variety of local undertakings. He knew, for example, that besides being a director and a large shareholder in the bank, Mr Crankshaw was heavily indebted to it. The money which he had borrowed was being well used to develop new dock facilities at Portishead, near the mouth of the river. One day these would certainly prove to have been a good investment, but that day was still in the future: in the meantime the security which he had given for the first loan, nine years earlier, no longer came near to covering the further borrowings which had become necessary as the scale of the development enlarged. If Lorimer’s was to call in the loan, Crankshaw’s yard would go bankrupt.
    Since in those circumstances Lorimer’s would lose all chance of repayment, this was a situation unlikely to arise; but as an accountant David could not help being consciousof the size of the unsecured part of the loan. As a relatively junior member of the staff, however, he could do no more than bring the situation to the attention of the manager at the end of his preliminary study of the bank’s financial affairs, and this he had done.
    All this, of course, was a confidential matter, not to be thought of outside business hours, and most certainly not to be mentioned to Margaret Lorimer, who would know nothing of her father’s affairs. Instead, he stooped a little to listen as she told him the names of unfamiliar ferns and flowers. He had no taste for botany, but her voice interested him.
    David Gregson was an ambitious young man. It was ambition which had carried him out of his first apprenticeship to the study of accountancy: it was ambition which had brought him south out of Scotland. Only twenty-seven, he had moved a long way already from the poor home into which he was born, and he intended