l
thinking.

The next day, at an hour before the morning tide of shopping at Kendrick
& Company's had reached the flood, two pretty glove clerks were suddenly
tempted into a furtive exchange of conversation at an unoccupied end of
their counter.

"Look quick! See the young man coming this way? It's Rich Kendrick."

"It is? They told me he never came here. Say, but he's the real thing!"

"I should say. Never saw him so close myself. Wish he'd stop here."

"Bet you couldn't keep your head if he spoke to you!"

"Bet I could! Don't you worry; he don't buy his gloves in his own
department store. He--"

"Sh! Granger's looking!"

There was really nothing about Richard Kendrick to attract attention
except his wholesome good looks, for he dressed with exceptional
quietness, and his manner matched his clothes. A floorwalker recognized
him and bowed, but the elevator man did not know him, and on his way to
the offices he passed only one clerk who could lay claim to a speaking
acquaintance with the grandson of the owner.

But at the office of the general manager he was met by an office boy who
knew and worshipped him from afar, and in five minutes he was closeted
with that official, who gave him his whole attention.

"Mr. Henderson, I wish you could give me"--was the substance of
Richard's remarks--"somebody who would go up to Eastman with me and tell
me what's the matter with a dry-goods store there that's on the verge of
failure."

The general manager was, to put it mildly, astonished. He was a mighty
man of valour himself, so mighty that his yearly salary would have been
to the average American citizen a small fortune. The office was one to
fill which similar houses had often scoured the country without avail.
Other business owners had been forced to remain at the helm long after
health and happiness demanded retirement. Among these, Henderson was
held to be so competent a man that Matthew Kendrick was considered
incredibly lucky to keep his hold upon him.

To Matthew Kendrick's grandson Henderson put a number of pertinent
inquiries concerning the store in question which Richard found he could
not intelligently answer. He flushed a little under the fire.

"I suppose you think I might have investigated a bit for myself," said
he. "But that's just what I don't want to do. I want to send a man up
there whom the owner doesn't know; then we can get at things without
giving ourselves away."

The general manager infer