"I know I'm stupid, sir."
"Far from it, Phil. I never knew a young man of your age who had so deep an insight into the science of accounts as you have; but you can't do everything at once."
"Thank you, sir; you are very kind. Perhaps the taking of trial balances is not my forte; but it seems to me that those invoices, when you bring them, will make it all right. Forty thousand dollars added to the stock will leave a balance of thirty thousand in favor of the concern."
"Very likely you are right, after all, Phil. Indeed, I think you must be. You are always correct about everything."
"O, no, sir; I don't pretend to be always correct, but I try to be so," I replied, blushing at the compliments showered upon me.
"But, Phil, you should not attempt to do what you don't understand."
"I thought I was perfectly competent to make out a trial balance, sir."
"Undoubtedly you are. It isn't that," he interposed, with a pleasant smile. "There are certain details of the business which you don't understand, and you can't make out a correct trial balance without including those details."
"I supposed I understood all about the business, and perhaps it would have come out all right if I had only had those invoices."
"I don't know how that might have been. But suppose Mr. Collingsby had seen your statement, that the firm had lost ten thousand dollars in six months."