Keith did not defend himself against this view of his conduct, and Isaac preserved his attitude of moral superiority.

“I’m not blaming you, my boy.  It’s my own fault.  I shouldn’t ’ave sent you out like that, with cart blansh, so to speak, and without it.  I should ’ave given you some responsibility.”

“Oh, thanks, I couldn’t very well have done with more than I had.”

“Ah—­you don’t know the kind of responsibility I mean.  You seem very ready to play fast and loose with my business.  I daresay, now, you think since you ’aven’t much to lose, you ’aven’t much to gain?”

“Well, frankly, I can’t see that I have—­much.  But I’ve got to catch a train in twenty minutes, and I want to know what you’re going to do?  Am I worth three thousand, or am I not?”

“You’re worth a great deal more to me.  You’ve got an education I ’aven’t got; you’ve got brains; you’ve got tact, when you choose to use it.  You’ve got expert knowledge, and I can’t carry on my business without that.  I’m not unreasonable.  I can see that you can’t act to advantage if you’re not made responsible, if you haven’t any direct interest in the business.”  He fixed his son with a glance that was nothing if not spiritually fine.  Keith found himself struggling against an infamous, an intolerable suspicion.

“And that,” said Isaac, “is wot I mean to give you.  I’ve thought it well over, and I believe it’s worth my while.”  He went on, joining his finger-tips, like a man who fits careful thought to careful thought, suggesting the final adjustment of a plan long ago determined and approved, for something in Keith’s face made him anxious that this offer should not appear to be born of the subject under discussion.

“It was always my intention to take you into partnership.  I didn’t mean to do it quite so soon, but rather than ’ear this talk of flinging up the business, I’m prepared to do it now.”

“On the same conditions?”

Now that Rickman’s should eventually become Rickman and Son was a very natural development, and in any ordinary circumstances Isaac could hardly have made a more innocent and suitable proposal.  But it was no longer possible for Keith to ignore its significance.  It meant that his father was ready to buy his services at any price; to bribe him into silence.

His worst misgivings had never included such a possibility.  In fact, before going down to Devonshire he had never had any serious misgivings at all.  His position in his father’s shop had hitherto presented no difficulties to a sensitive honour.  He had not been sure that his honour was particularly sensitive, not more so, he supposed, than other people’s.  Acting as part of the machinery of Rickman’s, he had sometimes made a clever bargain; he had never, so far as he knew, driven a hard one.  He was expected to make clever bargains, to buy cheap and sell dear, to watch people’s faces, lowering the price by their anxiety to sell, raising it by