His wife had tears in her eyes. “You must please excuse him,” she said to Arthur. “You do not know, you cannot guess, what this money is to us, nor what we have gone through lately.” Knight’s heart beat quickly. He had not felt so glad before as he did now that he was rich. How possible it would be for him to increase the happiness of other people if only he used his inheritance wisely! “Mr. Hancourt,” he said, “you were for a long time my father’s right-hand man. Will you be mine? My father’s most solemn legacy to me was his command to undo anything which is wrong in the business. Justice shall be done, as far as it is possible; but wisdom is a part of righteousness, and I need to be much wiser than I am to do perfectly the part that is allotted to me. It is my firm conviction that it is as possible to-day as ever to carry on a business upon Christian principles, and I am going to try. Will you help me?” “With all my heart, sir,” said Hancourt, fervently. “And I will try to deserve your confidence.” “The first thing I wish you to do is to furnish me with all the particulars of my constituency of labour. I want to know my people. Make me out a list of their names, and write beside each the sex, age, residence, religious denomination, what work he does, what wages he gets, and anything and everything there is to say about him. I hope in time to make the personal acquaintance of every individual who works for me. First, I must know the boys; and before another week is gone I shall get them together in some suitable place, that we may have a talk, and understand each other. I hope you agree with me, Mr. Hancourt, that the hope of the future is in the young. If we can secure them on the right side everything is gained.” Hancourt was delighted. He had found a master after his own heart. Hope had come back to him, and there was great gladness in the little home in which he lived. “I wish, Dallington, you could give me a year,” said Knight, as they drove back together. “It is not in my inheritance of money, but in my inheritance of men that I rejoice. These claim my first attention. I mean to make my _employés_ my friends.” “I hope you are not attempting the impossible. Many masters before you have tried, and failed,” replied Dallington. “Human nature is a very difficult thing to manage. Still, I wish you success. You will do it if it can be done, because you recognise the rights of brotherhood. But I am sorry that before you have everywhere delivered that speech which is in your mind you have all these new duties thrust upon you.”