“When you’re really worth twenty, I’ll make it two hundred—­”

The young man’s expression fell.  Had he heard aright?  What could the boss mean?

“Twenty?” he echoed, puzzled.

Stafford laughed loudly.  Mockingly he said: 

“Yes, I have a system about you.  I pay you ten times what I think you’re worth.”

The listener’s jaw dropped a few inches more.  This did not sound as if his employer appreciated his merit any too much.  Instinctively, he glanced around to see if anyone had overheard.  It was just as well Fanny was not present.  “Oh, you do?” he exclaimed with a crestfallen air.

Stafford seemed to enjoy the young man’s discomfiture.  Promptly he went on to explain: 

“When you first came I figured you were worth five dollars, so I gave you fifty.  When I thought you were worth seven dollars and a half, I gave you seventy-five, and when I thought you were really earning ten, I raised it to a hundred!”

Utterly unnerved by this unexpected blow to his pride, completely cowed, the young man stood staring foolishly at the railroad promoter, not daring to raise his voice in protest, completely intimidated by his employer’s manner.

“And now,” he asked timidly, “you think I’m worth fifteen?”

Stafford broke out into boisterous laughter.

“No, I don’t, Jimmie!  Oh, no, I don’t!  I raise you the other fifty because—­well—­there’s a reason!” Coaxingly, he went on:  “Jimmie, as a favor—­as a favor—­promise me you’ll never get to be worth twenty-five!  The manager of your department gets only two hundred and fifty and I couldn’t pay you as much as I pay him, could I?”

“I hoped to be manager of the department some day,” spoke up the clerk, regaining some of his self-assurance.

“What’s that?”

“I say I hoped to be manager of the department some day—­”

Stafford shook his head.  With mock solemnity he said: 

“Jimmie, for all our sakes, let’s hope that your hope doesn’t come out.”

The young man was about to make a retort in kind, but at that instant his employer’s attention was diverted to something more important.  Virginia and Fanny had re-entered the boudoir from the bed chamber, and were standing conversing at the far end of the room.

On seeing his wife, the railroad man seemed to forget aught else.  His eyes appeared to be fascinated by her; he closely watched her every movement.  Never, it seemed to him, had Virginia looked so attractive.  Was it her pale face, with the large appealing black eyes and small curved lips that thrilled him, or was it her negligee gown, the clinging folds of which imparted suggestive voluptuous lines to her slender figure, which set his sensualism aflame?

Virginia was painfully conscious of his steady stare and she trembled.  Well she knew what it meant.  If only she could keep her sister with her!  But it was late; the Gillies would soon retire.  Embarrassed by his persistent gaze, she went to the opposite side of the room on pretext of getting a photograph from a desk.  Before she could reach it, her husband had intercepted her.  Hoarsely he exclaimed: