“Eleanor wasn’t serious in what she said about your going into diplomacy, Allen.  Any ability a man has in that line is just as valuable in business.”

Mrs. Gorham laughed as she turned to Alice.  “Has that been troubling you, my dear?” Then to Allen:  “You touched on a very live wire when you said what you did yesterday, Mr. Sanford.  Alice thinks that a man who chooses anything but a business career is blind to what life offers him.”

“You do too, don’t you, Allen?” the girl asked.

“Why—­yes,” he answered.  “I haven’t exactly analyzed it, but I know I’d rather go into business than into the diplomatic service.”

“But you must have some reason for it,” she urged.

“I have—­I don’t want to spend my life in other countries.  Little old New York is good enough for me.  I have lots of friends there, and that’s where I’d like to settle down.”

“New York is a hard place for a young man to start his career,” said Mrs. Gorham.  “You will find there an absolute intolerance for the man in the making.  New York demands the finished product.”

“But you don’t have to start in New York,” Alice added.  “You could make your success in some other city, and then come to New York if you wanted to.”

Allen became unusually thoughtful as the conversation progressed.

“Gee!” he said; “I knew that I wanted to go into business, but I didn’t realize how much there was to think over before doing it.”

“But it’s worth all the time and thought you can give to it,” the girl said, enthusiastically.  “I can’t imagine anything grander than to stand at the threshold of the world ready to enter the battle of life, to struggle with the obstacles and to conquer them.  Think, Allen—­just think of what you have before you, while we girls never get any such chance at all.”

“Yes.”  Allen hesitated, carried off his feet by the intensity of the words and the rapt expression of her face.  “Yes, I guess it is grand, though it never struck me just that way before.  I say!—­” he continued, after a moment’s pause, “you’re an enthusiast on this business question, aren’t you?”

“Could she be Robert Gorham’s daughter and not be an enthusiast?” Mrs. Gorham asked.

“If father would only let me, I know I could make a success in business,” Alice continued.  “I watch him, when he least suspects it; I study the papers which he leaves around, and sometimes it seems as if I just must be a boy, and get into the thick of it.”

“What a funny idea!” Allen remarked.  “I never thought girls cared anything about business.”

“But it’s no use,” she bemoaned.  “I’ve got to be a girl whether I like it or not; but you haven’t any such handicap.”

“Haven’t I?—­you forget the pater.”

“If you felt as strongly about it as I do, you could persuade him.”

“Have you—­met the pater?” he asked, significantly.

Alice smiled for a moment, and then became serious again.  “If you have determination enough to succeed in business, Allen, the same characteristic will win out with your father.”