“Well that is right,” said Mary. “You should speak to mamma. She would help you.”
“Yes, I think she would. I mean to speak to her.”
And so they chatted on till David came in. Philip had made good a place among them. It was quite clear that they all liked him, as little Polly had said. They had always liked him from the very first, but he was more worthy of their liking now.
Mr Oswald and Frank came home in due time. There was nothing in Mr Oswald’s plans for his son to prevent the carrying out of the plan for the new partnership, as proposed by Mr Caldwell. He was greatly pleased with the compliment to his son, which Mr Caldwell’s proposal implied, and entered into the discussion of preliminaries with great, interest. As for himself he had returned home with no design of engaging immediately in business, except the business of an Insurance Company of which he had been made the agent. He was to wait for a year or two at least.
Frank, whose health and eyesight were quite restored, was offered the place in the new business, which Philip would so gladly have given to David. Of course he was as yet not so well qualified to perform the duties of the position as David would have been, but he possessed some qualities likely to insure success that David did not have, and he had that which was the source and secret of David’s goodness, so firmly believed in by little Mary and them all. He was learning to live, not to himself, but to his Master—to do His will and make known His name, and in all things to honour Him in the eyes of the world, and so he had also David’s secret of peace. But for a time he had little to do, as the new firm was not publicly announced till later in the year, and in the meantime he accepted Mrs Inglis’s invitation, and made himself one of the children of the bridge house, to his great pleasure and theirs.
Chapter Seventeen.
One morning as Mr Philip sat at breakfast reading the paper, as was his custom, he heard Mr Caldwell say—
“This is the twenty-second of September.”