"No, my dear father," answered Morten. "Don't you see that the times are
leaving you behind? It's of no use in these days to sit still; you must
keep your eyes open, or else run the risk of losing the best of the
business, and get nothing but just the residue."

Morten so far prevailed that the Consul was at length obliged to let him
set up an office in the town, but under his own name; for Garman and
Worse were still to be found only at Sandsgaard, and there those who
wished to do business with the firm had to betake themselves.

Meanwhile a considerable amount of business passed through Morten's
office in the town. This did not altogether please the Consul, but he
felt bound to uphold his son, which was what his father had always done,
and the firm thus became mixed up in many transactions which the father
would never have cared to enter upon.

To the clerks the young Consul was a being of quite another sphere.
Every head was bowed to him whenever he passed through the office, and
each one seemed to feel that the cold blue eyes penetrated everything
and everywhere--books, accounts, and letters, even into their own
private secrets. It was believed that he knew every page in the ledger,
and that he could quote intricate accounts, column by column, and if
there was even the slightest irregularity to be found anywhere, they
would wager that it could not escape the young Consul's eye. The general
conviction was, that if every creditor of the firm, or even the devil
himself, should some day take it into his head to come into the office,
there would not be found even the slightest error in one of the
ponderous and well-bound account books.