he office he felt like walking in the middle of the
street to avoid alley corners, since he was unable to divine from what
direction the next brick might come. He had taken the business to
heart more than he had imagined that he would, and the very fact of
his father's having foreseen that he would succumb to this
consolidation made him give grave heed to the implied suggestion that
he would be a heavy loser by it. He had an engagement with Allstyne
and Starlett at the Idlers' that afternoon, but they found him most
preoccupied, and openly voted him a bore. He called on Agnes Elliston,
but learned that she was out driving, and he savagely assured himself
that he knew who was handling the reins. He dined at the Traders',
and, for the first time since he had begun to frequent that place, the
creases in his brow were real.

Later in the evening he dropped around to see Biff Bates. In the very
center of the gymnasium he found that gentleman engaged in giving a
preliminary boxing lesson to a spider-like new pupil, who was none
other than Silas Trimmer. Responding to Biff's cheerful grin and Mr.
Trimmer's sheepish one with what politeness he could muster, Bobby
glumly went home.

On the next morning occurred the first stock-holders' meeting of the
Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, which Bobby attended with some
feeling of importance, for, with his twenty-six hundred shares, he was
the largest individual stock-holder present. That was what had
reassured him overnight: the magic "majority of stock!" Mr. Trimmer
only had twenty-four hundred, and Bobby could swing things as he
pleased. His father, omniscient as he was, must certainly have failed
to foresee this fact. In his simplicity of such matters and his
general unsuspiciousness, Bobby had not calculated that if the
additional six hundred shares were to vote solidly with Mr. Trimmer
against him, his twenty-six hundred shares would be confronted by
three thousand, and so rendered paltry.

Mr. Trimmer was delighted to see young Mr. Burnit. This was a great
occasion indeed, both for the John Burnit Store and for Trimmer and
Company, and, in the opinion of Mr. Trimmer, his circular smile very
much in evidence, John Burnit himself would have been proud to see
this day! Mr. Smythe, Mr. Trimmer's son-in-law, also thought it a
great day; Mr. Weldon, Mr. Trimmer's head bookkeeper, thought it a
great day; Mr. Harvey, Mr. Trimmer's confidential secretary, and Mr.
U. G. Trimmer