Australian Tales - Setis

Shrugs.
“OF course you know Mr. Abel Goodenough!” said a merchant in this
city, to a trader who had just come from the country to purchase goods.
“I suppose you mean Goodenough the storekeeper, of Midgyborough!”
“Exactly. What sort of man is he?”
“He is a little man with a big nose, a bald head, and a — ”
“Yes, yes, I know all about his physical peculiarities; but is he a safe
man? or in commercial phraseology, is he a good mark?”
An expressive shrug was the only reply to the questions. “Ah, I see:
you would advise me not to trust him. I am much obliged to you for the
hint.”
“It is not safe to express opinions about one's neighbours; besides, I
make it a matter of conscience never to do it,” said the countryman, with
another grimace more portentous than the last. “Goodenough, you know,
is my strongest competitor in the district, and that is a special reason why
I decline to say anything about him, for he might hear of it again.”
“I understand you. It is well to be cautious,” said the merchant. “The
fact is, he has written to ask for a renewal of a bill, due on the 4th. Now I
know what to say to him.”
* * * * *
A fortnight afterwards, Mr. Goodenough was in the Insolvent Court,
and his sinister neighbour was enabled to secure some rare bargains at
his clearing-out sale, while he chuckled over his successful ruse to get
rid of a hated rival in trade. Thus an honest, plodding man was
victimised, without knowing who had been the treacherous instrument of
his ruin. Two shrugs and a wink had broken up his business, and made
his family homeless, for a time.
To record all the mischief and misery that I have known to be caused
by such silent scandal — to tell of young maidens stigmatised, of wives
made desolate, and husbands driven mad through causeless jealousy,
would make a big book, and such a one as I have no desire to make. I
notice the foregoing solitary specimen of commercial shruggery, to
denounce such contemptible expedients which are especially dangerous
in seasons of embarrassment and misgivings.
It will not be thought very remarkable, that in my occasional rambles