at all personal, I simply felt...'
'I don't want you in my bank, Mr. Parfitt. You'll leave by tonight and never return.'
'And if I say I won't go? I own a good many shares in the bank, and I still have a lot of support on the board, you know, and what's more I could take you to court!
'Tlen I would recommend that you read the bank's bylaws, Mr. Parfi tt, which I spent some considerable time studying only this morning!
William picked up the small, leather - bound book which was still lying on the desk in front of him and turned a few pages over. Having found a paragraph he had marked that morning, he read aloud: 'Ile chairman has the right to re - move any office holder in whom he has lost confidence.' He looked up. 'I have lost confidence in you, Mr. Parfitt, and you will therefore resign, receiving two years' pay. If, on the other hand, you force me to remove you, I shall see that you leave the bank with nothing other than your stock. The choice is yours.'
'Won't you give me a chance?'
'I gave you a chance last Friday night, and you lied and cheated. Not traits I am looking for in my next ivice - chairman. Will it be resignation or do I throw you out~ Mr. Parfitt?, 'Damn you, Kane, I'll resign.'
~C3ood. Sit down and write the letter now.9 'No, IT let you have it in the morning in my own good tirne.'He started walking towards the door.
'Now - or I fire you,'said William.
Peter Parfitt hesitated and then came back and sank heavily into a chair by the side of William's desk. William handed him a piece of the bank's stationery and proffered him a pen. Parfitt took out his own pen and started writing. When he had finished, William picked up the letter and read it through carefully.
V,ood day, Mr. Parfitt!
Peter Parfitt left without speaking. Ted Leach came in a few moments later.
'You wanted to see nip, Mr. Chairman?'
Tes,' said William. 'I want to appoint you as the bank's ovemll vice - chairman. Mr. Parfitt felt he had to resign.9 'Oh, I'm surprised to hear that, I would have thought...'
William passed him the letter. Ted Leach read it and then looked at William.
'I shall be delighted to be overall vice - chairman. Iliank you for your confidence in me.'
'Good. I will be obliged if you will arrange for me to meet every director during the next two days. I shall start work at eight o'clock tomorrow morning.'
'Yes, Mr. Kane.'
Terhaps you will also be kind enough to give Mr. Parfites letter of resignation to the company secretary?'
'As you wish, Mr. Chairman!
'My name is William, another mistake Mr. Parfitt made.'
Ted Leach smiled tentatively. 'I'll see you tomorrow morning - - - 'he hesitated ~ - William!
When he had left, William sat in Charles Lester's chair and whirled himself around in an uncharacteristic burst of sheer glee till he was di=y. 'nen he looked out of the window on to Wall Street, elated by the bustling crowds, enjoy~ ing the view of the other great banks and brokerage houses of America. He was part of all that now.
'And who, pray, are you?' said a female voice from behind him.
William swivelled round, and there standing in front of him was a middle - aged woman, primly dressed, looking very irate.
'Perhaps I may ask you the same question,' said William.
'I am the chairman's secretary,' said the woman stiffly.
'And I,'said William,'am the chairman.'
During the next few weeks William moved his family to New York where they found a house on East Sixty~eighth Street. Settling in took longer than they had originally anticipated pible. For the first three months William wished, as he ossi tried to extricate himself from Boston in order to carry out his job in New York, that every day had forty - eight hours in it, and he found the umbilical cord was hard to sever completely. Tony Sininions was most helpful, and William began to appreciate why Alan Lloyd had backed him to be chairman of Kane and Cabot, and for the first time was willing to admit Alan had been right.
Kate's life in New York was soon fully occupied. Virginia could already crawl across a room and get into William's study before Kate could turn her head, and Richard wanted a new windbreaker, like every other boy in New York. As. the wife of the chairman of a New York bank she