"What makes you say that!" he exclaimed, anger in his eyes.

"Well, Fabian has to put money into something," she answered, "and the
only business he knows is lumber business. Don't you think it's natural
he should go to Belloc?"

"Did he ever say so?" asked the old man with savage sullenness. "Tell
me. Did he ever say so?"

The girl shook back her brave head with a laugh. "Of course he never
said so, but I know the way he'll go."


The old man shook his head. "I don't believe it. He's got no love for
Belloc."

The girl felt like saying, "He's got no love for you," but she refrained.
She knew that Fabian had love for his father, but he had inherited a love
for business, and that would overwhelm all other feelings. She therefore
said: "Why don't you get Carnac to come in? He's got more sense than
Fabian--and he isn't married!"

She spoke boldly, for she knew the character of the man. She was only
nineteen. She had always come in and gone out of Grier's house and
office freely and much more since her sister had married Fabian.

A storm gathered between the old man's eyes; his brow knitted. "Carnac's
got brains enough, but he goes monkeying about with pictures and statues
till he's worth naught in the business of life."