ethics and my own would be entirely different."

"What are business ethics, Mr. Gresham?" asked Constance with
suspicious innocence.

"There do not seem to be any," he responded.

"I never heard of any," agreed Gamble cheerfully. "My principle is,
See it first and grab it."

"That's the rule of every highwayman, I believe," charged Gresham.
"You will excuse me for a few moments, please?" And he hurried away
in pursuit of a man whom he had seen passing.

"That's the rule of life," said Gamble. "I had to learn it quick. It
took me four months to save up my first eighteen dollars. I thought
I'd never get it."

"You must have wanted something very much," suggested Constance,
smiling sympathetically at her vision of this man as a boy, hoarding
his pennies and nickels like a miser for so long a time.

"I did," he admitted simply. "I wanted a cook stove with silver
knobs. The day I had it brought home was the proudest of my life. My
mother knelt down and hugged it. It had four lids and not one of
them was cracked."

Constance looked at him with a musing smile. He must have been a
handsome boy.