the other's face. "I was thinking that if you mentioned
this to Mr. Robert--"

"Certainly not!" said Mr. Vyner, with great sharpness. "Certainly not!"

Anger at having to explain affairs to his clerk, and the task of
selecting words which should cause the least loss of dignity, almost
deprived him of utterance.

"This is a private matter," he said at last, "strictly between
ourselves. I am master here, and any alteration in the staff is a matter
for myself alone. I do not wish--in fact, I forbid you to mention the
matter to him. Unfortunately, we do not always see eye to eye. He is
young, and perhaps hardly as worldly wise as I could wish."

He leaned forward to replace the paper-knife on the table, and, after
blowing his nose with some emphasis, put the handkerchief back in his
pocket and sat listening with a judicial air for anything that his chief
clerk might wish to put before him.

"It would be a great blow to me to leave the firm," said Hartley, after
two ineffectual attempts to speak. "I have been in it all my life--all
my life. At my age I could scarcely hope to get any other employment
worth having. I have always tried to do my best. I have never--"

"Yes, yes," said the other, interrupting with a wave of his hand;
"that has been recognized. Your remuneration has, I believe, been in
accordance with your--ha--services. And I suppose you have made some
provision?"

Hartley shook his head. "Very little," he said, slowly. "My wife was
ill for years before she died, and I have had other expenses. My life
is insured, so that in case of anything happening to me there would be
something for my daughter, but that is about all."

"And in case of dismissal," said the senior partner, with some
cheerfulness, "the insurance premium would, of course, only be an extra
responsibility. It is your business, of course; but if I were--ha--in
your place I should--ha--marry my daughter off as soon as possible. If
you could come to me in three months and tell me--"

He broke off abruptly and, sitting upright, eyed his clerk steadily.

"That is all, I think," he said at last. "Oh, no mention of this, of
course, in the office--I have no desire to raise hopes of promotion in
the staff that may not be justified; I may say that I hope will _not_ be
justified."

He drew his chair to the table, and with a nod of dismissal took up his
pen. Hartley went back to his work with his head in a whirl, and for the
first time in twenty y