Grant’s first concern was to get a grasp of the business affairs which had so unexpectedly come under his direction. To accomplish this he continued the practice of the Landson ranch; he was up every morning at five, and had done a day’s work before the members of his staff began to assemble. For advice he turned to Jones and Murdoch, and the management of routine affairs he left entirely in the hands of the latter. He had soon convinced himself that the camaraderie of the ranch would not work in a staff of this kind, so while he was formulating plans of his own he left the administration to Murdoch. He found this absence of companionship the most unpleasant feature of his position; it seemed that his wealth had elevated him out of the human family. He wavered between amusement and annoyance over the deference that was paid him. Some of the staff were openly terrified at his approach.
Not so Miss Bruce. Miss Bruce had tapped on the door and entered with the words, “I was your father’s stenographer. He left practically all his personal correspondence to me. I worked at this desk in the corner, and had a private office through the door there into which I slipped when my absence was preferred.”
She had crossed the room, and, instead of standing respectfully before Grant’s desk, had come around the end of it. Grant looked up with some surprise, and noted that her features were not without commending qualities. The mouth, a little large, perhaps—
“How do you think you’re going to like your job?” she asked.
Grant swung around quickly in his chair. No one in the staff had spoken to him like that; Murdoch himself would not have dared address him in so familiar a manner. He decided to take a firm position.
“Were you in the habit of speaking to my father like that?”
“Your father was a man well on in years, Mr. Grant. Every man according to his age.”
“I am the head of the firm.”
“That is so,” she assented. “But if it were not for me and the others on your pay roll there would be no firm to require a head, and you’d be out of a job. You see, we are quite as essential to you as you are to us.”
Grant looked at her keenly. Whatever her words, he had to admit that her tone was not impertinent. She had a manner of stating a fact, rather than engaging in an argument. There was nothing hostile about her. She had voiced these sentiments in as matter-of-fact a way as if she were saying, “It’s raining out; you had better take your umbrella.”