you're right. I must not forget that I've got others to think of
besides myself."

This patently meant Janet; Mrs. Whitney held her discreet tongue.

"It will do no harm to go to the office," she presently continued. "You
ought to get some knowledge of business, anyhow. You will be a man of
property some day, and you will need to know enough about business to be
able to supervise the managers of your estate. You know, I had Janet take
a course at a business college, last winter, and Ross is in with his
father and will be active for several years."

* * * * *

Thus it came about that on Monday morning at nine Arthur sauntered into
the offices of the mills. He was in much such a tumult of anger,
curiosity, stubbornness, and nervousness as agitates a child on its
first appearance at school; but in his struggle not to show his feelings
he exaggerated his pose into a seeming of bored indifference. The door of
his father's private room was open; there sat Hiram, absorbed in
dictating to a stenographer. When his son appeared in the doorway, he
apparently did not realize it, though in fact the agitation the young man
was concealing under that unfortunate manner was calmness itself in
comparison with the state of mind behind Hiram's mask of somber
stolidity.

"He's trying to humiliate me to the depths," thought the son, as he stood
and waited, not daring either to advance or to retreat. How could he know
that his father was shrinking as a criminal from the branding iron, that
every nerve in that huge, powerful, seemingly impassive body was in