For Love or Gold? The Story of a Great Department Store — page 79: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

mF Oe Ret ade 1 SS pit gL Ager s aot Ag my a £5>-#, es ee Ay os peg roe ‘ a ~ : r Ce. ae iF ie? | ' « — 4 = , y m ' i fi 2 ad ‘ . “4 4 © es CHAPTER XV. Se A PLAIN TRUTH FROM MR. WATKINS, = Duncan Forbes roused himself to hear his second visi- tor’s errand. He knew that it must be something impor- -tant, yet he felt bored and disinterested. = é - Business matters were far from his thoughts to-day, _ yet for forty years they had consumed his entire attention. —— " Mr. Watkins seemed to be struggling for words—he — looked pained and embarrassed. ~He shifted his hat from one hand to the other, and his thin face reddened and — paled alternately. Se sien | _ For the first time in his life Duncan Forbes looked upon his assistant as another man’s son—the loved and loving child of another father. It was a queer sensation ; he could not get used to it; then came a memory of Jack, and his emotion conquered for the moment. Sc os ee “Vou are excited, Watkins; sit down,” he said huskily. “Something else has gone wrong at the store, | suppose. © s Well, let it go; it can wait until to-morrow.” | Nae “No, sir, it can’t wait!” blurted out Mr. Watkins. “If. _ it could I should not have come, knowing as I did of your. °35 _ dreadful sorrow!” : ne Again the thrill of surprise shook the man's every fibre: so Another of his victims had remembered that it was his day of grief, and the very tones spoke of sympathy for his affliction. o Sane “Well, then, what is it?’ He spoke with some of his ats * ba EF Gach i , old sternness. “Speak out, Watkins; you know my ~ habits. I always expect promptness in these errands.” “But this is purely personal, sir!” answered Mr. Wat- kins, sadly, “I have come to see you about that five hun- _ dred dollars that was taken from your desk last Monday _ - morning.” | & | eae _ “What of it?” asked Mr. Forbes with much of his old _ interest returning. He had been too long a slave to money - Bere d00se the bondage immediately. iS be es ago , -— comicbooks.com —