"I suppose you are getting rich."

"Not so fast as I should like. Expenses are very large. How would you like to run a store like this, Cousin Seth?" he added, in a complaisant tone.

"Not very well. I might like to own it, but I don't think dry goods are in my line."

"I fancy not," said Ezra, in a tone of calm superiority. "It takes some business ability to run a large store."

"No doubt you have the necessary ability," observed Seth, with a smile.

"Well, I manage to do it."

"I hope Scott will be as successful as you have been."

"It isn't every one who works in a dry-goods store who rises beyond a salesman," returned Ezra Little, with a cold glance at Scott.

As the proprietor of the store passed on to his office, Seth Lawton said: "Have you been out to lunch, Scott?"

"Yes, Cousin Seth."