at as usual on the stair-landing.
There Mr. Jacob Cluyme (who had been that day in conversation with
the teller of the Boatman's Bank) chanced upon him. Mr. Cluyme was so
charmed at the facility with which Eliphalet recounted the rise and fall
of sugar and cotton and wheat that he invited Mr. Hopper to dinner. And
from this meal may be reckoned the first appearance of the family of
which Eliphalet Hopper was the head into polite society. If the Cluyme
household was not polite, it was nothing. Eliphalet sat next to Miss
Belle, and heard the private history of many old families, which he
cherished for future use. Mrs. Cluyme apologized for the dinner, which
(if the truth were told) needed an apology. All of which is significant,
but sordid and uninteresting. Jacob Cluyme usually bought stocks before
a rise.

There was only one person who really bothered Eliphalet as he rose into
prominence, and that person was Captain Elijah Brent. If, upon entering
the ground-glass office, he found Eliphalet without the Colonel,
Captain Lige would walk out again just as if the office were empty. The
inquiries he made were addressed always to Ephum. Once, when Mr. Hopper
had bidden him good morning and pushed a chair toward him, the honest
Captain had turned his back and marched straight to the house or Tenth
Street, where he found the Colonel alone at breakfast. The Captain sat
down opposite.

"Colonel," said he, without an introduction. "I don't like this here
business of letting Hopper run your store. He's a fish, I tell you."

The Colonel drank his coffee in silence.

"Lige," he said gently, "he's nearly doubled my income. It isn't the old
times, when we all went our own way and kept our old customers year in
and year out. You know that."

The Captain took a deep draught of the coffee which Jackson had laid
before him.

"Colonel Carvel," he said emphatically, "the fellow's a damned rascal,
and will ruin you yet if you don't take advice."

The Colonel shifted uneasily.

"The books show that he's honest, Lige."

"Yes," cried Lige, with his fist on the table. "Honest to a mill. But
if that fellow ever gets on top of you, or any one else, he'll grind you
into dust."

"He isn't likely to get on top of me, Lige. I know the business, and
keep watch. And now that Jinny's coming home from Monticello, I feel
that I can pay more attention to her--kind of take her mother's place,"
said the Colonel, putting on his felt hat and tipping