The extension granted by Thomson & French's representative came at the exact moment when Morrel had given up all hope. For the struggling shipping company owner, this unexpected stroke of luck felt almost too good to be true, as if fate had finally grown tired of tormenting him.
That same day, he shared the news with his wife, his business partner Emmanuel, and his daughter. For the first time in months, a ray of hope returned to the Morrel household. But unfortunately, Thomson & French wasn't Morrel's only creditor. In the cutthroat world of international shipping, he had business partners, not friends.
When Morrel thought about it rationally, he couldn't understand why Thomson & French had been so generous. The only explanation that made sense was purely business: 'Better to help a man who owes us 300,000 francs and get our money back in three months, than to force him into bankruptcy and recover only six or eight percent.'
