The thing is an outrage! exclaimed Bobby with passion.
My dear Mr. Burnit, it is business, said Mr. Trimmer coldly, and, turning, went deliberately into his own room, leaving Bobby standing in the middle of the floor.
Bobby sprang to that door and threw it open, and Trimmer, who had been secretly trembling all through the interview, turned to him with a quick pallor overspreading his face, a pallor which Bobby saw and despised and ignored, and which turned his first mad impulse.
Id like to ask one favor of you, Mr. Trimmer, said he. In moving the furniture out of the John Burnit offices I
should be very glad, indeed, if you would order my fathers desk removed to my house. It is an old desk and can not possibly be of much use. You may charge its value to my account, please.
Nonsense! said Mr. Trimmer. Ill have it sent out with pleasure. Is there anything else?
Nothing whatever at present, said Bobby, trembling with the task of holding himself steady, and walked out, unable to analyze the bitter emotions that surged within him.
On the sidewalk, standing beside his automobile, he found Johnson and Applerod waiting for him, and the moment he saw Johnson, cumbered with the big index-file that he carried beneath his arm, he knew why.
Give me the letter, Johnson, he said with a wry smile, and Johnson, answering it with another equally as grim, handed him a gray envelope.
Applerod, who had been the first to upbraid him, was now the first to recover his spirits.
Never mind, Mr. Burnit, said he; businesses and even fortunes have been lost before and have been regained. There are still ways to make money.
Bobby did not answer him. He was opening the letter, preparing to stand its contents in much the same spirit that he had often gone to his father to accept a reprimand which he knew he could not in dignity evade. But there was no reprimand. He read:
Theres no use in telling a young man what to do when he has been gouged. If hes made of the right stuff hell know, and if he isnt, no amount of telling will put the right stuff in him. I have faith in you. Bobby, or Id never have let you in for this goring.In the meantime, as there will be no dividends on your stock for ten years to come, what with improvements, expenses and salaries, and as you will need to continue your education by embarking in some other line of business before being ripe enough to accomplish what I am sure you will want to do, you may now see your trustee, the only thoroughly sensible person I know who is sincerely devoted to your interests. Her name is Agnes Elliston.
Oh, nothing much, said Bobby; a little groggy, thats all. The governor just handed me one under the belt. By the way, boys and they scarcely noted that he no longer said gentlemen if you have nothing better in view I want you to consider yourselves still in my employ. Im going into business again, at once. If you will call at my house tomorrow forenoon Ill talk with you about it, and anxious to be rid of them he told his driver Idlers, and jumped into his automobile.
Agnes! That surely was giving him a solar-plexus blow! Why, what did the governor mean? It was putting him very much in a kindergarten position with the girl before whom he wanted to make a better impression than before anybody else in all the world.
It took him a long time to readjust himself to this cataclysm.
After all, though, was not his father right in this, as he had been in everything else? Humbly Bobby was ready to confess that Agnes had more brains and good common sense than anybody, and was altogether about the most loyal and dependable person in all the world, with the single and sole exception of allowing that splendid looking and unknown chap to hang around her so. They were in the congested down-town district now, and as they came to a dead stop at a crossing, Bobby, though immersed in thought, became aware of a short, thick-set man, who, standing at the very edge of the car, was apparently trying to stare him out of countenance.
Why, hello, Biff! exclaimed Bobby. Which way?
Just waiting for a South Side trolley, explained Biff. Going over to see Kid Mills about that lightweight go were planning.
Jump in, said Bobby, glad of any change in his altogether indefinite program. Ill take you over.
On the way he detailed to his athletic friend what had been done to him
in the way of business.
I knowd it, said Biff excitedly. I knowd it from the start. Thats why I got old Trimmer to join my class. Made him a special price of next to nothing, and got Doc Willets to go around and tell him he was in Dutch for want of training. Just wait.
For what? asked Bobby, smiling.
Till the next time he comes up, declared Biff vengefully. Say, do you know I put that shrimps hour a-purpose just when there wouldnt be a soul up there; and the next time I get him in front of me Im going to let a few slip thatll jar him from the cellar to the attic; and the next time anybody sees him hell be nothing but splints and court-plaster.