“You wouldn’t like to follow it permanently, eh?”
“No, sir; by the time I got to be fifty or sixty, I might like to change to something else.”
“You might be able to retire on a fortune.”
“It would be a very small one, judging from my weekly pay.”
“I think myself, unless you are wedded to the business, you might pass your time more profitably. What do you think you would like?”
“To enter some business house where I could rise step by step as I deserved it,” answered Paul, with animation.
“You have the right idea. Now let me tell you why I inquire. In the fall my father will establish a branch house here, with myself at the head of it. I don’t mind telling you that if I had lost the money I have with me, it is doubtful whether he would have trusted me so far. Now, thanks to your prompt assistance, I have been spared the natural result of my folly, and my father will never know the risk I have run. So you see that you have rendered me an important service.”
“I am sincerely glad of it, sir.”
“I mean that you shall be, and on your account. If I establish myself here, I shall want a young assistant on whose intelligence and fidelity I can rely. Do you know any such person?”
“I hope you mean me,” said Paul eagerly. “It is just the opening I have been looking for, for a long time.”