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You realize as soon as you hear the slight shake in your voice that you don't have the confidence to really speak your mind in front of so many people just yet—not when you're going up against someone like Mr. Clarence. With a sinking feeling, you can already tell that you won't be able to keep pressing your point if he gives you a too-easy answer.

"Well, I'd think it's obvious!" Mr. Clarence says with a flourish of his hands. "Just look around! The town is just charming, and there's just so much potential for it. Now, if you're asking why I'm bothering with a plan like this at all—I'm sure nobody is going to believe me if I say it's all from the goodness of my heart. Of course, I'm a businessman, and I would have to make sure there was something in it for me."

He holds up his hands as if to say: You got me! At the same time, that easy smile never leaves his face, and he carries on smoothly.

"Now, I'm not going to insult anyone's intelligence by pretending I'm not hopeful that these plans will benefit my company—but I wouldn't be a very good businessman if my plans were going to bankrupt the town, because then I'd lose out as well. But, to be a little less cynical, I really like to think that I can help the both of us—this town and myself—with these plans. I'm from a small town myself, and I'd never be able to live with myself if I thought I could be greedy enough to hurt a bunch of folks that are just trying to get by. So, yes, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement—but that doesn't mean that, just because one side gets a leg up, the other side loses out."

He finishes with a short glance up at the stage, as if hoping to show the hard-hearted Town Council members just how much he is thinking of them. From the look of some of their faces, they're not quite so convinced—but at the same time, it seems it would be hard to fault Mr. Clarence's generous transparency in admitting that, yes, he does in fact hope that these plans will help him make a profit. You have to wonder whether, in his mind, that really is a startlingly honest thing for a businessman to confess.

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