S THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYER

Septimus Rainer was very soon admitted to the frankest intimacy of the
little circle. An American of the best type, he had enjoyed the
advantage in his childhood of the stern and hardening training of life
on a little farm, and the supreme advantage of a good mother. He had
fought his way to fortune with clean hands, winning always his battles
by sheer superiority of brain, never by laxity of principle; no man
could lay to his charge that he had dealt him a foul blow. He had
come, therefore, through that demoralising fight with a clean heart,
his native shrewdness increased a thousand-fold, his native simplicity
unabated. It was this combination of shrewdness and simplicity which
had caused him to send Dorothy, bitter as it had been to part with her,
to Europe to finish her education. His gorge had risen at the
intolerable snobbishness which is corroding the wealthy sections of
American society; he had made up his mind that she had a better chance
of obtaining the necessary social acquirements, while remaining a
gentlewoman, in Europe; and had acted with great success on the
conviction.

After a few days' natural restlessness he found himself developing an
admirable capacity, very rare in millionaires, of being for a while
idle. This agreeable circumstance was the natural effect of the
surroundings in which he found himself; not so much of the place, for
at Monte Carlo pleasure is a somewhat strenuous affair, but of the fact
that his new friends had a trained power of taking life easily.
Tinker, Sir Tancred, and Lord Crosland would have admitted him to their
intimacy for the sake of Dorothy; but simple souls themselves, they
recognised in him a kindred simplicity, and admitted him to their
friendship. He possessed, to a great degree, the American
adaptability; and it is not surprising that he fell into their way of
taking life easily. It was only for the time being. The millionaire
is a good deal of the Sindbad, and he must bear the burden and go the
way of the golden Old Man of the Sea he has made for himself. But
Septimus Rainer enjoyed this respite from the tyranny of his millions
with the whole-hearted pleasure of a child. He enjoyed the brightness
and glitter of the place; he enjoyed the pleasant meals and pleasant
talks with pleasant companions; he enjoyed a little gambling at the
tables; and he enjoyed with a childlike zest playing with Dorothy and
the children, displayi