o exist, and that
Hasluck was one of them. One avoids difficulties by dismissing them as a
product of our curiously complex civilisation--a convenient phrase; let
us hope the recording angel may be equally impressed by it.

Casting about for some reason of excuse to myself for my liking of him,
I hit upon the expedient of regarding him as a modern Robin Hood, whom
we are taught to admire without shame, a Robin Hood up to date, adapted
to the changed conditions of modern environment; making his living
relieving the rich; taking pleasure relieving the poor.

"What will you do?" asked my mother.

"I shall have to give up the office," answered my father. "Without him
there's not enough to keep it going. He was quite good-tempered
about the matter--offered to divide the work, letting me retain
the straightforward portion for whatever that might be worth. But I
declined. Now I know, I feel I would rather have nothing more to do with
him."

"I think you were quite right," agreed my mother.

"What I blame myself for," said my father, "is that I didn't see through
him before. Of course he has been making a mere tool of me from the
beginning. I ought to have seen through him. Why didn't I?"

They discussed the future, or, rather, my father discussed, my mother
listening in silence, stealing a puzzled look at him from time to time,
as though there were something she could not understand.

He would take a situation in the City. One had been offered him. It
might sound poor, but it would be a steady income on which we must
contrive to live. The little money he had saved must be kept for
investments--nothing speculative--judicious "dealings," by means of
which a cool, clear-headed man could soon accumulate capital. Here the
training acquired by working for old Hasluck would serve him well. One
man my father knew--quite a dull, commonplace man--starting a few years
ago with only a few hundreds, was now worth tens of thousands. Foresight
was the necessary qualification. You watched the "tendency" of things.
So often had my father said to himself: "This is going to be a
big thing. That other, it is no good," and in every instance his
prognostications had been verified. He had "felt it;" some men had that
gift. Now was the time to use it for practical purposes.

"Here," said my father, breaking off, and casting an approving eye upon
the surrounding scenery, "would be a pleasant place to end one's days.
The house you had was very