Chapter 1

Leaving on a short buying trip, Michael left Margaret and Peter in the sorrowful state of separation.  But Peter was a courageous young lad.  He had an immense and sharp wit which was charged with a stouthearted self-determination. When his father returned, Margaret besought that Peter be allowed to live at home. But Michael wanted his son to be independent rather than subservient to a bunch of women.

“How is my son ever going to learn how to give orders and expect them to be followed if he stays soft?”

“But he’s only a boy!” Margaret cried in protest.

“Boys turn into men, and if he doesn’t develop the strength it takes to take command now, he will be no more than a useless wimp!”

But Margaret won out. Michael agreed to allow Peter to live at home, but insisted that he attend formal school.

To suppress the tendency in his son to be fair to the working class, Michael hired on a new staff of servants who were instructed that his son’s orders had to be followed, or else! The over-attentive nurturing from nannies was over!  He paid the attending butlers and maids to see to Peter’s every need and want – large or small – with the hopes of stunting his sense of compassion and increasing the selfish desire in him to be served.

Michael kept the cracking whip of his domineering will over Peter, as well as over the cortege, making sure they did as he said and not as his wife said. But when one hires on clever servants, who can suppress their cleverness? They can outwit even the scheming mind of the man who hired them. Such was the nature of the menials hired by Michael. They were a scheming gang of Thespians who knew how to practice the art and skill of prevarication with the greatest of professionalism. They were specialists in hiding the truth behind the veil of flattery and played both sides of the court when it came to Michael’s and Margaret’s wishes.

The servants were well aware of the clash of ideals between Michael and Margaret; and as a consequence, these sycophantic individuals targeted Peter in every instance with extra heaps of vain-filled compliments and outlandish praises, doing so in a most capricious manner in Michael’s presence to gain his favor.  And while Michael was away, they pretended to be the paragon of values and qualities for the boy in Margaret’s presence. This fulsome behavior of the servants led Peter, who was not only a victim but a witness of this deceit, to distrust nearly everyone around him.

The rhetoric the servants bathed him in for the sake of gaining Michael’s favor, and the pretense of sincerity they cloaked over him for winning Margaret’s favor, fell on his eyes as a drama being enacted by them to please each of his parents for the sole sake of keeping their jobs. Thus, whenever anything was said to him with pretended sincerity, he did not believe it. And whenever he was praised, he closed his ears to it all.

Michael played the gallant man. The artistic style, manner, speech, and appearance he donned, added flare to his name and fame; for being a success in business was as much a talent of the tongue as it was the cleverness of the mind. He used his body as a mannequin and dressed it to fit the occasion; and then like a prince who knew nothing about running the realm, attended every gala in search of festivity, and behaved as though he was in charge of everything. Cunning practices require cunning artifices. The gullible believed his every word, but  what of men more conniving and powerful than him? Well, they would try to use him as their instrument.

Michael was as sly as a fox at some points and as vulnerable as the chicken at others.  But being as well educated as he was, he strove to minimize his risks and maximize his advantages.  By sheer extraordinary ingenuity and cleverness, he was able to use his education in such a manner, where he could outfox the slyest men and build a fortune from textiles and shipping where ordinary-motivated men would have failed.