"I have done my part. I'm waitin' for you to do yours," replied the boy.
"Mine? What's my part, I'd like to know?" demanded the young man, sharply.
"To pay me for my work." replied Theo, promptly, but with a shadow falling on his face.
"Pay you? Well, if this isn't cheeky! I didn't agree to pay you anything."
"But you knew that I expected to be paid for my work," persisted the boy, the angry colour rising in his cheeks.
"You expected--pshaw! Young man, you've had a lesson that is well worth the time and labour you've expended," remarked the clerk in a tone of great dignity. "Hereafter you will know better than to take anything for granted in business transactions. Good-morning," and he turned his back on the boy and began to write again.
Theodore glanced around the room to see if there was any one on his side, but two of the other clerks were grinning at his discomfiture, and the others pretended not to know anything about the affair. He saw now that he had been foolish to undertake the work as he had done, but he realised that it would not help his case to make a fuss about it. All the same he was unwilling to submit without a protest.
"Next time I'll take care to make my bargain with a gentleman," he said, quietly.
He saw a singular change in the expression of the clerk's face at these words, and as he turned sharply about to leave the office he almost ran into a tall, grey-haired man who had just entered.
"Stop a bit, my boy. I don't understand that remark of yours. What bargain are you going to make with a gentleman?"