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 sion and prayer with old Stanley. "Good Lord," he thought and realized how rigid was the decision regarding him. It made him want to break away; but already, in a sense, he had been at work. He remembered Metten.

"An order come over from Mettens this morning?" he asked.

"No."

"Not yet, I guess," said Jay; and now he inquired, "By the way, the Alban account all right? Lew trying anything?"

He saw his father color slightly. "Lew is not yet in control," said John Rountree, vengefully. "I will start you in the stockroom."

"What at?"

"Learning stock."

"I meant the pay envelope."

"There will be consideration of your necessities," said his father. Another echo of the prayer, thought Jay. "I will pay you fifty dollars a week. Also you—both of you—can have your home with me."

It was generous, Jay very well knew: a home, for his wife and himself, without expense and with more pay than any one else, purely as an employer, would offer him at the start; yet it was, under the circumstances, impossible. What was, for him, feasible?

"Thanks, father," he acknowledged, uneasily.

"What did you expect? You must learn stock before you can sell."

"Lowry sent me some money at Tryston," Jay reminded. "Did I earn any of it?"