I have been pondering on why Providence has been so kind to Skrine & Co. up to date, and how this firm founded by a polo-playing Anglican Englishman, a bridge-playing Presbyterian Scotsman, a piano-playing Roman Catholic Irishman, a north country beer connoisseur Englishman (religion unknown) and an Ipoh Chinese Methodist managed to cohere as well as it did and to attract a string of Asian partners, and to keep and then expand its clientele.