ring?"

"Not yet, sir."

"Well, I don't doubt that'll come in its own good time."

"You don't think I ought to----?" began Dean tentatively.

"I don't interfere in that. It's your own private affair and no concern
of mine. You can afford to marry her on your present salary. If she's a
girl likely to make a good wife, I hope you _will_ marry her. I like my
employees to be married. It's healthy for them and makes them better
business men. Is she an ambitious girl?"

"I hardly know that."

"Well, my advice to you is this: marry someone ambitious. You'll need
it. You're inclined to weaken."

"It's very good of you to take such an interest in me."

"I like you. I want to make you one of my right-hand men eventually. Now
I want to say this in particular: keep business affairs to yourself."

"I'll certainly do so, sir."

"Don't talk about them even to your parents, even to your young lady.
I'm paying you a very good salary for a man of your age, and I expect a
closed mouth about my affairs."

"Of course."

"Get the reason for it. This deal I'm engaged on is a big thing, and
there are plenty of City people in London who'd like to know just what
I'm planning, and just why Matheson and I sent you to Canada. I want you
to keep them guessing until the scheme's floated. D'you get that?"

"Certainly, sir! You may rely on me not to say anything about your
business affairs to anybody. I know how things leak around once
anybody's told."

"That's right! Now send off those wireless messages, and then go and
amuse yourself for the rest of the morning. Cabin and all quite
comfortable?"

"Quite, thank you, sir," answered Dean, and went off buoyantly.

In the afternoon Olaf was sailing his yacht on deck on the new set of
wheels made for him by the ship's carpenter, while his father sat
stretched in a long deck-chair watching him tenderly and weaving dreams
for his future. The thought crossed his mind--not for the first
time--whether it wouldn't be advisable to get a stepmother for the boy.
Larssen had a strong intuitive feeling that he would not live to old
age, and he wanted to know that the boy would have someone to care for
him and to stand behind him while he was seating himself firmly on his
father's throne.

Specifically, the shipowner was reviewing Olive as a possible
stepmother. There was no scrap of passion in his thoughts. He was
viewing the matter as a business proposition, weighing the pros and cons
calmly