“Old Mr. Seth was down when I got back. You know he only comes down for an hour or two now in the middle of the day. He called me to him, and asked where I had been to lunch. I said with you. That was all, until four o’clock, when Mr. Eben came to me and asked if you had shown me anything--a letter from Lot & Company, for instance. I said yes. He went away, and at half-past four, he called me again, handed me my weekly envelope, saying that they would not need me any longer. I came right here. It seemed, I couldn’t go home----” “Davy, lad, I’m glad I’m not broke, but if I were and couldn’t do a thing to make up--it would be a lucky day for you.” Bellair ordered supper served in the room. They were free and alone. Faith returned to the boy, enough for the hour. Davy was consulted carefully upon the details of the order, a subtle suggestion from Bellair from time to time. Something of the long dinners on the _Jade_ had come to his mind in this rôle. He had learned much about food that voyage, the profundity and emptiness of the subject. Bellair told his story, making it very clear to Davy--this at first: “The office was doing to me just what it would do to you, Davy. It was breaking me down. The floors of Lot & Company are filled with heart-broken men. They do not know it well; some of them could never know, but there are secrets in the breasts of men there, that you wouldn’t dream of. It is so all over New York. Trade makes it so--offices, the entire city, crowded with heart-broken men.... They say first, ‘Why, every one is out for himself and the dollar--why not I?’ You and I were taught so in our little schooling. Then Lot & Company taught us. They are old masters--generations of teachers. Cramped and bleak, but loyal to the one verb--_get_. In all the Lot family, Davy, there is not a true life principle such as you brought to the office in the beginning. But if Lot & Company were unique--they would be an interesting study. The city is crowded with such firms--heart-breakers of men, the slow, daily, terrible grind; every movement, every expression, a lie--until to those inside, the lie is reality--and the truth a forbidden and terrible stranger. Every man has his Lot & Company.