Chester Rand Part 47

"It's rather a delicate matter, as you are a friend of his, but some days since I was obliged to discharge him."

"You don't say!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Silas, in manifest surprise.

"I am sorry to say it."

"But what was the matter? What did he do?"

"Well, as to that, he did nothing very serious, but he wasted time when he was sent out on an errand, and I felt that it was injurious to the interests of Mr. Fairchild to retain him."

"He used to be spry enough when he worked for me."

"When he worked for you?"

"Yes. I keep a store out in Wyncombe, and he was in my employ most a year. I used to think him quite a lively boy."

"I dare say he would do very well in a country store, but in the city we want boys to be active and wide awake. I don't want to say anything against him. He was perfectly honest, so far as I know."

"Has he got another place?"

"I don't think he has. It is difficult for a boy to get a place in this city--that is, a good place, and he wouldn't be likely to refer any employer to me."

"I'm afraid he'll be put to it to live, for his mother was poor. How much wages did you pay him?"

"Five dollars a week."

"That's pretty high pay."

"So it is, and we expect a first-cla.s.s boy for that."

"Have you got a better boy in his place?"

"Yes; I have taken in a cousin of mine who knows my ways and satisfies me."

"Was it the boy I saw just after I came in--a dark-complexioned boy with black hair?"

"Yes, that is Felix."

"And you find him better than Chester?"

"Yes."

Silas Tripp did not make any comments, but he had not been very favorably impressed by the little he had seen of Chester's successor.

"Mebbe Chester isn't adapted to the city," Silas said.

"I think you are right. It would be better for him to go back into your store, but country boys fancy they must come to the city and become city business men."

"That's so. Mebbe I wouldn't succeed in the city myself, though I'm doin' a tidy business in Wyncombe. I'd like to see Chester. Can you tell me where he lives?"

"No, I haven't his address."

"I wonder he hasn't gone back home. Mebbe he hasn't got the money."

"I presume you are correct in your conjecture."

"His mother hasn't said anything to me about Chester bein' out of work.

I'm surprised at that."

"Perhaps he did not like to tell her."

"Very like, very like! I'm really sorry to hear Chester ain't done no better."

"He isn't quite up to our mark, but I dare say he will do very well in the country or in some small business."

"Are you doin' a large business? You don't seem to have much stock here."

"My dear sir, we can't get brownstone houses and country villas into an office like this."

"Is that what you sell?"

"Yes; I sold a fifty-thousand-dollar house this morning up on Forty-fifth Street, and yesterday I sold a summer hotel for forty thousand dollars. Our commission in each case would be several hundred dollars."

"Sho! Well, you be doin' a good business. Can you tell where I can get a good dinner moderate?"

Felix came in at this moment.

"Felix," said his cousin, "you may keep the office while I go out to lunch. Mr. ---- You didn't tell me your name."

"Silas Tripp."

"Mr. Tripp, it will give me pleasure if you will go out and take lunch with me."

"Well, I am sure you're very polite," said Silas, pleased to think he would be saved expense; "I'm much obliged."

So the two went out together. Mullins continued to say considerable that was derogatory to Chester, and left Mr. Tripp under the impression that he was a failure so far as New York business was concerned.

CHAPTER XXVII.

MR. TRIPP IS DISAPPOINTED.

Silas Tripp returned home full of the news he had heard in New York.

"Just as I thought," he said to himself, "Chester Rand ought never to have left Wyncombe. He ain't calc'lated to succeed in the city. He'd orter have stayed in my store. In two or three years he might have been earnin' four or five dollars a week, and he could have boarded at home.

It costs a sight to live in the city. I ain't sure that I could afford it myself."