“You can’t give it now?”
“No-o. I guess I’d better not. However, I think—”
“Yes.”
“Well, I think I may take the job. Take it on trial, anyhow.”
“Good! I’m glad of it.”
“You are?”
“I certainly am. And I’m very glad indeed to have made your acquaintance, Captain Warren. Good afternoon. I shall hope to see you again soon.”
Captain Elisha left the Central Club in a surprised frame of mind. What surprised him was that a man of such thorough city training and habits as the senior partner of the law firm should express pleasure at the idea of his accepting the charge of A. Rodgers Warren’s heirs and estate. Mr. Graves had shown no such feeling.
If he had heard Sylvester’s report to Kuhn, at the office next day, he might have been even more surprised and pleased.
“He’s a brick, Kuhn,” declared the senior partner. “A countryman, of course, but a keen, able, honest man, and, I think, a mighty good judge of character. If I was as sure of his ability to judge investments and financial affairs, I should be certain the Warren children couldn’t be in better hands. And no doubt we can help him when it comes to that. He’ll probably handle the girl and boy in his own way, and his outside greenness may jar them a little. But it’ll do them good to be jarred at their age. He’s all right, and I hope he accepts the whole trust.”