that underneath the
boyish irresponsibility lay excellent material for the elder man to
mould.

"Once upon a time"--Gorham put the words in the form of a
parable--"there was a boy who was ambitious to jump a very long
distance. On the day of the contest, in order to make sure of
accomplishing his purpose, he took an extra long start, and ran so hard
that when he reached the mark from which he was to jump he had spent his
strength."

Stephen Sanford had not disappointed Gorham in the attitude he took when
he first learned that Allen had been given a position with the
Consolidated Companies. The letter which he wrote to his old friend
contained accusations of the basest treachery which one man could show
toward another: Gorham had deliberately planned to separate father and
son; he had discovered the boy's rare business qualifications and taken
advantage of them for his own personal ends. The act was in keeping with
the basis upon which his whole company was founded. Gorham's good-nature
was taxed to its utmost, but he fully realized how deeply his old friend
was wounded; and the knowledge that his own interest in Allen was in
reality a genuine service to Sanford himself served to blunt the force
of the attack.

Allen, oblivious to everything except the present opportunity to prove
himself to Alice and to be near Alice, plunged ahead until Gorham was
forced to change his words of caution into actual commands.

"You are trying to put the head of the wedge in first, my boy," the
older man told him. "You are using twenty pounds of steam to do the work
of two, and that does no credit to your judgment."

Covington was negatively antagonistic from the start in that quiet,
skilful way which kept his animosity from any specific expression. Allen
felt it, and reciprocated the feeling with an intensity not lessened by
the knowledge that Covington and Alice were thrown together almost daily
by this business arrangement which seemed to him the height of
absurdity. He did not approve of the business manners which the girl
delighted to assume with him when they chanced to meet, and he watched
for an opportunity to tell her so.

As the opportunity seemed slow in coming, with characteristic energy he
made one to order. Gorham required some important papers which he had
left at his house the night before, and the boy so arranged his arrival
that he had the pleasure of seeing Covington depart, although he himself
was unobserved. He