She half turned away from him, but Vance seized her by the shoulders and swung her back again.
“It is true that I’m not the same old Vance in some respects. I’m to-day the king of the corn market, and I’m worth several millions—just how many I can’t say as yet. I went into this thing because it was my duty to try and save Mr. Whitemore’s interests. If I’ve done more than that it was because once I took hold I couldn’t let go. I had to stick to my post—sink or swim on the ultimate result. Well, I’ve come out ahead. The papers call me the Corn King, and they tell the truth. But Bessie,” and tears came to his eyes as he spoke the words, “I’d give every dollar of my winnings—every cent I have made in this deal—to hear you call me Vance once more as you used to do, to know that you still think of me as you once did.”
There was a pause, and then the girl gradually lifted her eyes to his face.
“Vance!” she said softly.
Before Mr. Whitemore returned to his office a well man again he heard enough about that famous corner in corn to feel assured that Vance Thornton was the smartest boy who ever walked in shoe leather.
The full particulars of the deal he learned as soon as he and Vance came together again, and the result was that the sign on the office door was altered to Whitemore & Thornton, and nobody was surprised when they saw it.
That fall there was a quiet wedding at the Thornton home, on which occasion Elsie Thornton became Mrs. William Bradhurst, and Vance was the best man.
Bessie Brown was among those present, and the pronounced attention she received and accepted with pleasure from Vance Thornton seemed to augur well for another wedding at no very distant day, when the sweet little stenographer might be expected to make happy for life the boy who had effected A CORNER IN CORN.
THE END.