spect. But you can't think that my
carefulness in so important a matter as this would be any less than your
own. Come, now, let us forget all this. Go back to your duties, my boy,
with a confidence that my judgment is better than yours."

As Allen made no reply and showed no inclination to leave, Gorham
wondered if he had still anything further to say. The boy moved
uncomfortably in his chair as the question was asked.

"Not regarding the business detail, Mr. Gorham," he replied at length.
"Oh, I am all at sea!" he burst out suddenly, his voice trembling with
emotion. "I guess business isn't in my line anyhow."

"What do you mean, Allen?" Gorham asked, completely surprised by the
boy's intensity.

"If I tell you what I really mean you will think I am ungrateful for the
chance you have given me, and, truly, that isn't it. I know you feel
that the Consolidated Companies is accomplishing a great work, and
you're right; but there's another side which I don't like at all. With
the single exception of yourself, I don't believe there is a man
connected with it who isn't in it for what he can get out of it. The
public is being benefited by certain reductions which the Companies
accomplishes, but before long I'm sure they will have to pay up for all
they have saved, with a bitter interest. Of course, my feeling this way
is simply an evidence that I don't understand things at all."

Allen had touched upon Gorham's most sensitive point. "It is a deep
disappointment to me that you feel as you do," he replied. "As you say,
it is an evidence that you don't understand things at all. The
Consolidated Companies has almost reached a point where individual
personality is merely incidental; where, in my opinion, my own services
even will not long be essential. I like to believe that my continued
connection strengthens and guides it, but no one man can now affect its
progress to any serious degree; but, my boy, loyalty to the Companies on
the part of its employees is absolutely imperative. That I must demand
of you."

Allen winced under the criticism, but he could not withdraw from his
position.

"Could not a man like Mr. Covington change the entire policy of the
Companies if he came into control?" he asked, significantly.

"No," Gorham replied, firmly. "In the first place, if he gained control,
he would have no desire to change it; in the second, my Executive
Committee is made up of men of too high principle to permit him or any