ffin you might have been an ordinary street
Arab. He sent you to a business college after you had finished the
public schools, and then he took you into his office and started you on
a business career.

"You showed great promise, and Mr. Griffin was delighted and advanced
you rapidly. You seemed to know the meaning of gratitude and worked
hard. You were ambitious, too--always said that some day you would be
worth a million dollars.

"Step by step, you went up the ladder. Then it happened that your
cousin, George Lerton, obtained a position in the same office after his
father's death. He had had the advantage of a college education and knew
how to handle himself in the presence of other men, and yet you, after
your early struggle and with an inferior education and inferior
opportunities, easily outdistanced him.

"Other men began talking about you as a coming man--bankers and brokers,
business men and financiers. Mr. Griffin finally gave you the post of
chief clerk and adviser. You worked hard and seemed to be loyal and
faithful. You got profits for your employer where other men would have
caused losses. So he let you more and more into his confidence.

"You got to know the secrets of big deals, the inside facts of the
country's finance. You spoke in millions, but got only a nice salary.
Your ambition to be worth a million dollars seemed to be not susceptible
of gratification. Yet you saved money, and took advantage of small,
solid investments now and then.

"After a while you met a girl and fell in love with her. She was the
sort who wished wealth above all, and you soon found that out. You
became engaged to her, however. Then a rival appeared in the field, a
wealthier man. You realized that the girl was shallow in that she
favored the man with more money, but you were so infatuated that you
overlooked that. You wanted the girl and, to get her, you had to have
more money.

"Then you began to feel dissatisfied. You didn't want to grow gradually,
as other men did. You wanted the foundation for a fortune--enough to use
in a plunge in the market. You wanted to be rich as soon as possible.

"You began to think, perhaps, that you were not getting ahead. You
worked in an atmosphere of wealth, you heard men speak in terms of
millions, while you had less than ten thousand dollars in the bank. You
began to think that Mr. Griffin should do more for you, that he had not
done enough. You forgot that he had picked you up and