ntil he could
choose his words in the presence of his wife and daughter.

"I have borne with this long enough," he interrupted. "I have been
patient with you because I sympathized with your disappointment
regarding Alice--but my patience is at an end. Your jealousy has so
warped your sense of right and wrong that you are willing to attack the
reputation of a man of honor and integrity, trying to injure him in the
eyes of those who respect him. I warned you against this, and you have
failed to heed my warning. Much as I regret it, on many accounts, there
is no alternative--your usefulness to the Companies is at an end."

Allen rose and looked searchingly into Gorham's face. He could read in
the lines which he saw there a real suffering which touched him deeply.
No man, not even his father, had come so closely into his life as Mr.
Gorham, and the boy's heart was wrung with pain that he should be the
cause of adding to his burdens. But his gaze into those expressive eyes
seemed to bewilder him still further, for he passed his hand in a dazed
manner across his forehead.

"You must be right," he said at length. "I should have known that I'd be
no good in business. Why, I haven't even brains enough to comprehend. I
know that you, sir, are the soul of honor, and yet you tell me that you
knew of that investment. I'm a failure--I'm just no good, that's all.
I'll go back to Pittsburgh and tell the pater what a chance you gave me,
and what a mess I made of it. Then I'll ask him to let me strip down as
his other workmen do, and go into the furnaces where I belong.
Good-night and--good-bye."

As the conversation developed into so serious a situation, Alice and
Eleanor watched the two men, astonished at the nature of the
disagreement, and filled with apprehension. Mrs. Gorham had grown more
fond of the boy than she realized until this moment, and she actually
suffered for him. Alice was running the gamut of her emotions, her
sensations changing every moment, affected by each sentence which she
heard torn from the very soul of each speaker. As Allen rose after his
final acceptance of his dismissal, she rose with him, a curious mixture
of uncertainty and lack of understanding combining in her expression.

"I don't believe you do know about that stock, daddy," she said,
quietly. "Before Allen goes perhaps--"

"I know all about it, Alice," her father replied, impatiently. "Allen
has no right to meddle in my personal affairs, and I