"I wonder if Riley has forgiven me for marrying your father," Eleanor queried, laughingly. "He looks upon 'Mr. Robert' as his personal property, and I really believe he has always resented my presence as an intrusion."

"Pat is the only one who can make him stand around," Alice admitted; "but, seriously, I think he looks upon you as a real addition to the family. That's a proud position for you to have attained in four years."

"I hope you are right," Eleanor laughed again. "Without Riley's approval, peace in the Gorham family would be impossible. Now tell me what you are thinking over so seriously. I've been on the point of asking you ever since luncheon."

Alice looked up quickly and smiled brightly.

"Am I serious?" she asked. "I didn't realize that I became thoughtful so seldom as to have it attract attention; but, since you ask, I am wondering how my business experiment is going to work out."

"Mr. Covington is an able instructor, and I feel sure that his pupil is a proficient one."

"Isn't it good of him to give me so much time! He hasn't missed a morning since we returned. Oh, it's wonderful to listen to him, he knows so much about things; and it all seems simple enough after he explains it. He is very patient with me, even though I know he thinks I'm awfully stupid."

"He doesn't seem to find the task irksome," suggested Eleanor.

"That's because he thinks so much of father," the girl explained. "He has told me a lot I never knew about dear daddy, and it makes me love him more than ever. Mr. Covington says there isn't a man in the world to-day equal to father; and, of course, I know he's right, but it's pleasant to hear some one else say it."

"How do you like Mr. Covington as you become better acquainted with him?" Eleanor asked.

"Very much," Alice replied, sincerely; "no one could help it. Next to daddy, he's the finest man I know."

"Do you think you could become very close friends?"

The girl laughed merrily. "What a funny idea!" she exclaimed. "It takes two to become close friends, and a man in his position could never have a friendship with a girl my age--especially when he has this opportunity to learn all my shortcomings. I should be very proud of a friend like Mr. Covington."

Eleanor feared to disturb matters by further questioning. All seemed to be progressing favorably in the direction which her husband desired, and, as he said, Covington was undoubtedly able to handle the situation himself. Mrs. Gorham had watched the "lessons" from the corner of her eye, and had seen much which had evidently escaped Alice.

"I'd like to ask you a question." Mrs. Gorham looked up quickly at the abruptness of the girl's sudden remark. "You are the only one I can go to when I don't understand anything; but Mr. Covington told me to think it over and keep what he said entirely to myself. He couldn't have meant me to keep it from you, could he?"

"You are the best judge of that, dear. Has it to do with yourself?"

"Not exactly--it has to do with my property: the money my mother left me, you know."

"Why should he interest himself in that?"

"As a surprise to daddy--to show him how rapidly I am becoming a business woman."

"I think you had better talk it over with your father," Eleanor said, decidedly. "He can advise you far better than Mr. Covington."

"Oh, no; that is the very thing I mustn't do. That would spoil the whole thing. Mr. Covington knows of a stock which I could buy which will double within two months, and father will be delighted when he sees how cleverly I have invested the money."

"But you can't do anything with that money without your father's permission."

"Yes, I can; Mr. Covington has looked it all up. I have full control over it now that I am eighteen. All I have to do is to sign a paper which he will bring me, and he will do the rest."

Mrs. Gorham was thoughtful for some moments. "Mr. Covington would certainly take no chances with the girl's money," she mused. "I wonder what Robert would think of it." Then aloud, "Did he tell you what the stock was?"

"Yes; but you mustn't breathe it. You don't think I'm betraying a confidence, do you? He was so emphatic about my thinking it over by myself; but he couldn't have meant not to tell you, dear. It is some stock in a street railway here in New York which he thinks he can get hold of. Wouldn't it be fine to double my money! But I must promise not to tell daddy how I did it--just surprise him with it."

"I don't know what to advise you, Alice," Eleanor said, doubtfully.

"It must be all right, for Mr. Covington knows," the girl insisted; "that's why daddy has him come to teach me. But I shall think it over very carefully, as he asked me to." Alice threw her arms impulsively around Eleanor's neck and kissed her, laughing happily. "We business people have to consider these problems very deeply," she said, dropping her voice. "I will tell you in the morning what I decide."

A heavy step upon the gravel walk announced Gorham's arrival. Greeting them affectionately, he placed one arm about the waist of each and turned from one to the other, looking silently into their faces. "My inspirations," he exclaimed, smiling; and as Eleanor glanced triumphantly at Alice, the girl realized the force of the words the elder woman had spoken in an earlier conversation. Here--in them--rested that power which stimulated the execution of affairs of which the whole world talked!

"I have news for you," Gorham said, turning to Alice. "Mr. Allen Sanford, late chauffeur, is now the right arm of the Consolidated Companies."

"Do you really mean it!" she cried, transferring her caresses to her father. "Have you actually given him a chance? Oh, I'm so happy about it!"

"I really mean it," Gorham replied, laughingly, amused by the girl's enthusiasm; "and by doing so, I presume I have incurred the eternal enmity of one Stephen Sanford."

"How did it happen, Robert?" Eleanor inquired, hardly less pleased than Alice.

"The boy has some promising stuff in him," was the reply. "He has more to get over than most youngsters have; but his very impulsiveness, properly controlled, may prove an a.s.set. The young rascal almost sold me a set of the _Home Travellers' Volumes_, and with all his amateurishness he showed a good deal of skill, and an unlimited amount of imagination.

I've wanted to give him a chance ever since Stephen threw him over, and now I'm going to do it."

Alice became serious again after her first outburst. "Who is going to teach him?" she asked.

"Experience will be his best master," Gorham replied, surprised by her question.

"Don't you think I could help him by showing him some of the things Mr.

Covington has taught me? He needs an inspiration more than any one I know."

"No; I do not think so, young lady," he said, shaking his finger at her playfully. "If I am any judge of human nature, he would teach you more along certain lines than I care to have you learn just yet."

Alice flushed. "How absurd!" she pouted. "Allen could never interest me in that way. Why, he's only a boy. When I marry, daddy, my husband must be a man lots older than I am, just as you are older than Eleanor. He will have to be older, to have had time to accomplish all he must have done, if I am to respect him; and there couldn't be love without respect, could there? How perfectly absurd! Why, Allen is--just Allen!"

"Of course, my dear; I was only teasing you--and the man who wins you must have accomplished a whole lot more than you demand in order to satisfy me. So that problem is settled, and we'll wait for the Knight Adventurous who dares attack our citadel."

Alice stooped and picked a gorgeous dahlia, upon which she fixed her still averted gaze.

"I only wanted to do my part," she said, apologetically. "Allen is dreadfully alone in the world, now that his father has gone back on him.

I think I am the only one who understands him."

"Your father is but joking, Alice," Eleanor rea.s.sured her. "You and Allen are now business a.s.sociates, and it will be your duty to help each other, all for the advancement of the great Consolidated Companies."

The girl looked up brightly. "That's right," she said; "business a.s.sociates always do that, don't they? Now I'll leave you to yourselves until dinner-time."

With an understanding glance at Eleanor, Alice ran up the terrace steps and into the house. Mrs. Gorham repeated to her husband the girl's conversation and added her own interpretation of the situation, carefully avoiding any mention of Covington's proposition, which was the one subject upon which she would have preferred to talk.

"She is growing up too fast, Robert," she concluded. "We must make her play more and forget the responsibilities which she insists upon a.s.suming."

"She's in safe hands," Gorham replied, smiling. "Keep her young as long as you can, dear, and when she has to grow up, even to your mature years, help her to be just such another woman as yourself. Covington gives me glowing accounts of her progress in the little scheme which you so cleverly suggested. He seems to think her interest is more than a mere whim, but I can't believe it."

"She is a strange girl in some ways," Eleanor replied, "and we must watch her carefully just at this crisis."

"I don't intend to have young Sanford step in and upset my plans,"

Gorham insisted.