“Chiefly because you asked it, Stephen.”

“Well, I don’t ask for it any more.  With all your experience you’re not competent—­”

“Should I have shown greater competency if my advice had agreed with your own ideas?”

“Don’t try to juggle with words, Robert.  It’s all off between the boy and me, understand.  I’ll paddle my canoe and he can paddle his.  When he’s ready to use my stroke he knows where my landing is.  And now good-day to you.  ‘Bear with my weaknesses, eh?’ ’Humiliating exhibition.’  Good-day, I say.”  And without giving Gorham the opportunity to do so he flung open the door and stamped out into the corridor to the elevator, his cane keeping time with the tumult of thoughts which surged through his brain.

Gorham watched the unyielding back of his friend until he turned the corner, then he closed the door.

“Poor old Stephen,” he sighed to himself.  “If I had only been blessed with that boy.”

IX

Allen had ample opportunity to act the part of the hydra.  When his father left him after their stormy interview the boy utterly failed to realize the seriousness of the situation.  The “pater” had been angry with him before,—­if the truth be told, he was usually angry with him,—­so the fact that the altercation this time had been more severe than usual was a matter simply of degree.  The cutting off of his allowance was a tangible evidence that his father was more than ordinarily angry; but, on the other hand, Allen felt himself to be the aggrieved party, and in a virtuous burst of righteousness he declared to himself that he “didn’t want the pater’s money, anyway.”  He considered it fortunate that it was still early in the month, and it did not occur to him to consider the rather handsome balance he still possessed as too tainted to retain; but as he looked at it the upshot of the whole matter was that now he would be forced to go into business at once—­and this was his strongest desire since he had met Alice.  So Allen “hiked it” to New York, and spent a fortnight seeking out the opening which should best offer him the opportunity to become a captain of industry with the least possible delay.

In the mean time, Covington had returned to Washington to assist Gorham in putting through a government contract for the building of the new battleships just authorized by Congress.  He found his chief gratified by the continued advance of the Companies’ interests, but still more impressed by the personal responsibility which this success entailed.

“I repeated the cable from Brazil to you by wire,” Covington remarked.

“Yes; the Consolidated Companies now controls the coffee output of the world.  With the economies which we can introduce in production and handling there will be a saving of about twelve millions a year.”

“That will be a handsome addition to the dividends already assured the stockholders,” Covington observed.