For Love or Gold? The Story of a Great Department Store — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVII. THE PARTNERS DO A LITTLE TALKING, Mr. Forbes was at his office in the store early the next morning after his interview with Mr. Watkins. He would have been glad to stay away for another day, but there were many details of the business that needed his attention. Sam Watkins, his office boy, was not waiting for him as usual, but Mr. Forbes was confident that he could find him when he wanted him. He looked around for his assistant, but he was absent also. This fact was more annoying, because it aroused his suspicions. “Bolted!” he muttered with an angry frown. “Ten to one he’s run away and I'll never get my money.” fain figure. “Comichooks.com ~ Then he smiled a little, for he knew that Watkins had no funds with which to make his escape, but even if he had there were many ways of catching him. _ As he seated himself at his desk both of his partners entered, and there were expressions of condolence offered in a punctilious manner. “Sometimes I think that we fathers are all wrong,” re- marked Mr. Denton, after the condolences were over. _ “We bind ourselves hand and foot in the bondage of _ business, and all for what—our wives and children! If they needed such a sacrifice we would not begrudge , d but the more they have the more they want, until the he _ of the family is a mere automaton—a machine to pamper: useless folly.” | This was a lengthy speech for the senior partner to make, as he was naturally a reticent man, who allowed others to do the talking. “You may be right,’ remarked Mr. Day pompously, “still, you must admit that wealth brings advantages even to us who slave—we can drop business cares and go _ abroad now and then—our time is our own beyond a cer- P