A Business Career

XVII

112 XVII. Stella's brother had not been to see her for severalevenings. She felt disappointed and neglected, for she had relied upon George for occasional companionship during the disagreeable task she had undertaken for the benefit of the family. She was charitable enough to suppose he was working overtime, or had other engagements. A letter from her mother, however, containing a message for George, made it necessary for her to get speech with him. Upon calling him up bytelephone bynoon, shelearned that he had not been at the office during the morning. A second call, several hours later, was no more successful, and left Stella somewhat alarmed. "I'll go round to his boarding-house, when I leave the office," she thought. "He may be ill." Stella wasvery much concerned about her brother, when she knocked at the door of his boarding-house shortly after fiveo'clock, and her concern wasnot lessened bythe result of her inquiries. "Mr. Merwin," she was told, "paid his board last night, took his trunk, and went away. We understood he was leaving the city." Stella hastened homeward. Perhaps a letter for her had been delivered during the day.This turned out to be the case; there, upon the table in the entrance hall, lay an envelope addressed in her brother's flowing hand. She seized it with trembling, and ran up to her own room. It was short and 113 seemed from its blotted appearance to have been written in haste: "Dear Stella:You'll be surprised to learn that Tve resigned my position, and, by the time you receivethis, shall have left Groveland. A long letter of explanation will follow later on. Tve been in trouble, mostly through my own fault, and have been helped out of it on condition that I go away and start life over again in the West.Break it to mother asgentlyasyou can. Til write her as soon as I have the nerve. Hoping that neither of you will worry,I remain, until you hear from me, "Your unfortunate brother, "George." Stella was as much alarmed by the indefiniteness of this letter as overwhelmed by the news that her brother had been obliged to leavethe city.Shecould scarcelydrink a cup of tea at supper after which she went immediately to her room, where she wrote a long letter to her mother. Upon going to bed, she lay awake for several hours, imagining the kinds of trouble that her brother might have fallen into. That he had committed a crime was at first scarcely comprehensible. Perhaps it was some entanglement with a woman, though she knew of nothing to base such a suspicion upon. Of the two evils this might have seemed the more excusable in a young man. But when Stella recalled her brother's free expenditure of money, and furtive, restless, almost haggard expression at their last meeting, she could only fear the 114 worst. Only an offense of the gravest character could merit such sudden and drastic treatment. The idea that her brother could be dishonest was inexpressibly shocking to Stella, entirely apart from the fear of public disgrace, which in this case had been eliminated. Stealingwassuch a low crime, and in a position of trust, like her brother's, so complicated with treachery and breach of confidence, that she tried vainly to banish her suspicion. She did not sleep well that night, and her dreams werenot pleasant. XVIII. Mr. Truscott observed his stenographer very closely after the evening of his dinner at MissWedderburn's. Up to that time he had been unconscious of any special interest in the girl, and even afterwards his thoughts in regard to her were purely involuntary.A recent development in the oil business had opened up a vast new field of enterprise to the man or company that should first exploit it, and Truscott, with his wonderful keenness of perception, had been the first to foresee its possibilities. The situation was not without difficulties . A large amount of capital would be required, and the undertaking must expect to meet, sooner or later, the opposition of powerful rivals, who had long been seeking to control the oil business of the world. To successfully head off this opposition, it would be necessary to place with prudence , secrecy and dispatch, a large amount of money. Most of this, of course must be disbursed through the hands of ...