It was more as a
personal favor than anything else that he had undertaken the work upon
the warehouse; he had put it through more promptly than anybody else
could have done, and with less interruption to the course of trade than
either of the firm would have imagined possible. For the past month the
business had been comfortably accommodated in its enlarged quarters,
and the two new floors were already habituated to the occult processes
which competition and a minutely graded scale of prices impose upon even
the most righteous of the trade. It is but fair to say, however, that
Marshall & Belden always saw that their sugar was as saccharine as a
specified price would permit, and that their coffee-roasters met the
lowered standard of cheap purchasers as well as the apparatus of any
rival did.
Yes, everything was running smoothly, and Bingham felt that he might
venture a slight trespass upon the friendliness and tolerance of his last
client.
He looked at Marshall for a moment with a slow and cautious smile. "Yes,
the young people are holding up their end; but how about the 'old man'
himself?"
"Oh, that's it!" thought Marshall. He made an instant and intuitive
application of this remark. He _was_ declining towards the horizon; he
_was_ shining but dimly compared with the twinkling of his attendant
satellites.
"Well, the 'old man' isn't altogether useless by a long shot. The young
people dance--and the old people furnish the platform.
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