ruck me just that way before. I say!--" he continued,
after a moment's pause, "you're an enthusiast on this business question,
aren't you?"

"Could she be Robert Gorham's daughter and not be an enthusiast?" Mrs.
Gorham asked.

"If father would only let me, I know I could make a success in
business," Alice continued. "I watch him, when he least suspects it; I
study the papers which he leaves around, and sometimes it seems as if I
just must be a boy, and get into the thick of it."

"What a funny idea!" Allen remarked. "I never thought girls cared
anything about business."

"But it's no use," she bemoaned. "I've got to be a girl whether I like
it or not; but you haven't any such handicap."

"Haven't I?--you forget the pater."

"If you felt as strongly about it as I do, you could persuade him."

"Have you--met the pater?" he asked, significantly.

Alice smiled for a moment, and then became serious again. "If you
have determination enough to succeed in business, Allen, the same
characteristic will win out with your father."

The boy did not know quite what to answer. Stephen Sanford insisted
that the only reason Allen showed a preference for business was because
he knew his father had set his heart on a different career for him. It
may have been merely an unconscious assertion of his budding manhood
which rebelled against having his life-work laid out for him without
consultation, just as his governess used to lay out his clothes. At all
events, from his very nature, Allen had not considered the matter as
seriously as he now saw Alice had done, and he was entirely unequal to
the task of holding up his end of the discussion. So, after a few
moments' silence, during which she watched him with eager expectancy, he
turned his face toward her, and grinned broadly.

"I'm mighty glad you are a girl," he said, irrelevantly; "and I'm mighty
glad you can't go into business."

Alice was disappointed on his account, but she chose to reply only to
his reference to her.

"Of course," she pouted. "You men are all alike. You're selfish and
unsympathetic. You want all the interesting things for yourselves,
and--some of you--don't even know why you want them."

"I really believe you're getting personal." Allen laughed. "Don't knock;
come right in. Now, to heap coals of fire upon your head, I'll tell you
what I'll do, Alice; I'll divide chances with you, beginning with the
first."

"Do you mean to say you haven't had even a f