within its portals he became more
erect, more commanding--in fact, a different human being
altogether--and proceeded to announce right and left in accents never
employed by him anywhere else that it was a beautiful day.

On this particular morning Christopher, who tagged meekly at his heels,
fervently subscribed to the sentiment he advanced. It was a beautiful
day. Almost any day, so new in the adventure of setting forth for a peep
into the business world, would have seemed beautiful. And yet there was
really nothing very novel in going to the store, for since a small boy
he had been accustomed to being taken there to meet his father.

Sometimes such excursions culminated in new shoes or a new overcoat;
sometimes in a pair of skates or in luncheon; and on a very red-letter
day, such as a birthday or anniversary of some sort, in a matinee or
moving-picture show.

Therefore Christopher was no stranger either to the plush-lined cases
and their sparkling contents or to the men who presided over them.
Everybody knew him by sight--doormen, salesmen, elevator boys,
watchmakers, bookkeepers, and messengers. He was the son of the boss,
Christopher Mark Antony Burton, fourth.

There were, alas, times when Christopher wished from the bottom of his
heart he had been less well known. To be regarded as the future heir to
all this splendor kept those he met in the establishment painfully
deferential and created an estranging gulf 'twixt him and all that was
human and interesting.

If, for example, when he bobbed unexpectedly into the elevator, old
Joseph, its colored operator, had only kept right on munching an apple
instead of whisking it out of sight into his pocket, how much pleasanter
it would have been! Then, too, the men all insisted on calling him
_sir_, which embarrassed him and made him feel very young and foolish.
He had never desired to be a person of privilege for in spite of his
sonorous name, Christopher was very democratic.

Probably if left to himself he would within twenty-four hours have been
on the friendliest of terms with everybody in the shop. But in the
background loomed his father of whom every employee stood in awe, and
whose imposing presence they never forgot for one instant. You did not
forget Mr. Christopher Mark Antony Burton, third, senior partner of the
firm; he did not let you.

It was for this reason that Christopher the fourth made his advent into
the great shop with less joy and abandon than