way. "A man of your sort, with the strength and the ability
you inherit, and with the power that they give you to play an important
part in the world, doesn't let things drift to ruin. I intend,
ultimately, to give my share of the Ranger-Whitney Company to
Tecumseh--I'm telling you this in confidence."

Arthur glanced quickly at the great financier, suspicion and wonder
in his eyes.

"But I want it to be a value when I give it," continued Whitney; "not the
worse than worthless paper it threatens to become. Scarborough and Dr.
Hargrave are splendid men. No one honors them more highly than I do. But
they are not business men. And who will be their successors? Probably men
even less practical."

Arthur, keen-witted but young, acute but youthfully ready to attribute
the generous motive rather than the sinister, felt that he was getting a
new light on Whitney's character. Perhaps Whitney wasn't so unworthy,
after all. Perhaps, in trying to wreck the business and so get hold of
it, he had been carrying out a really noble purpose, in the unscrupulous
way characteristic of the leaders of the world of commerce and finance.
To Whitney he said: "I haven't given any thought to these matters." With
a good-natured laugh of raillery: "You have kept me too busy."

Whitney smiled--an admission that yet did not commit him. "When you've
lived a while longer, Arthur," said he, "you'll not be so swift and harsh
in your judgments of men who have to lay the far-sighted plans and have
to deal with mankind as it is, not as it ought to be. However, by that
time the Ranger-Whitney Company will be wiped out. It's a pity. If only
there were some way of getting the control definitely in your
hands--where your father would have put it if he had lived. It's a shame
to permit his life work and his plans for the university to be
demolished. In your place I'd not permit it."

Arthur slowly flushed. Without looking at Whitney, he said: "I don't see
how I could prevent it."

Whitney studied his flushed face, his lowered eyes, reflected carefully
on the longing note in the voice in which he had made that statement, a
note that changed it to a question. "Control could be got only by
ownership," explained he. "If I were sure you were working with a
definite, practical purpose really to secure the future of the company,
I'd go heartily into your assessment plan. In fact, I'd--" Whitney was
feeling his way. The change in Arthur's expression, the sudden ti