“If the Company succeeds,” continued Mrs. Tramlay, “Mr. Marge will be as much the gainer as you or young Hayn, won’t he?” “Certainly.” “Then he’ll be that much better off than this young man you’re so fond of?” “Yes, if he does nothing foolish in the mean time; but I have my doubts of the financial stability of any man who can’t pass a stock-ticker without looking at it. Wall Street exists solely for the purpose of absorbing such men’s money.” “Mr. Marge is no fool,” said Mrs. Tramlay. “He’s no wiser than some veterans who have had to leave their millions in the street and live on their children for ever after.” “The Improvement Company has only about forty acres, I believe you said?” “Just forty.” “And two thousand an acre is the most you hope for?” “Yes.” “That would be eighty thousand dollars: four into eighty goes twenty times, and----” “If I’d known you’d such a head for business I would have asked you to put a housekeeper in charge of the family, so I could have your services at the office,” said Tramlay. “Twenty thousand dollars would be very little for a young man to marry on in New York,--and in our set.” “Twenty thousand, and a salary which I must soon increase in simple justice; also, expectations from his father’s estate in the course of time. I don’t remember to have told you, though, that the young man was long-headed enough to suggest that his father should buy options on the continuation of the ridge,--there are several hundred acres in all, distributed among different farms,--and the old fellow has worked it so skilfully that we have the refusal of it all, for a year, at a trifling outlay in money. There’s genuine city business capacity in that young man’s head,--he?” “It appears so,” Mrs. Tramlay admitted. This admission might have been of great comfort to Phil could he have heard it, but, as he never received any information, except through his alternating hopes and suspicions, he was obliged to remain in doubt. His principal hope, aside from that based on Lucia’s willingness to devote any amount of time to him, was obtained through the manner of the head of the family. Tramlay was communicative as wise merchants usually are to their employees; he was also confidential: evidently he trusted Phil implicitly, for he told the new clerk all his business expectations and hopes, instructed him carefully regarding every one whom the young man was to see for business-purposes, and threw much important work upon him. It seemed impossible to misconstrue the purpose of all this: at the very least, it implied a high order of respect; and the respect of a possible father-in-law was not an ally to be underrated. Besides, Tramlay frequently put Lucia in his charge when she was out for an evening; and this implied a still higher order of trust.