"So I supposed. You are one of the last clerks taken on."
"Yes, sir."
"I am sorry, I have bad news for you. Mr. Tenney feels, in view of the dullness in business, that it will be advisable to diminish his clerical force. As you are one of the last taken on, he has selected you and a few others for discharge."
Rupert turned pale. What a terrible misfortune this would be to him he well knew. The future seemed to him dark indeed.
"I hope, sir," he said, in an unsteady voice, "that the firm is not dissatisfied with me."
"Oh, no. No indeed! I have heard only good reports of you. We shall be glad to recommend you to any other firm."
"Thank you, sir. When do you wish me to go?"
"You can stay till the end of the week."
Rupert bowed and left the room. His head was in a whirl, and he felt that a calamity had indeed fallen upon him. His wages were but five dollars a week, but this sum, small as it was, was the main support of his mother and sister, the latter a chronic invalid, only two years younger than himself. What they were to do when this small income was taken away he could not conjecture. He felt that he must look out at once for a new place.