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"Why, Graham!"

"Well, ask her," he said And there was a real bitterness under the

lightness of his tone "I'll co me I haven't a lot of time I'm a sort of clerk down at the

mill, you know"

Natalie overheard, and her eyes lance of

malicious triumph She had been deeply resentful that he had not made

Graham a partner at once He remembered a conversation they had had a

few months before

"Why should he have to start at the bottom?" she had protested "You

have never been quite fair to him, Clay" His boyish diminutive had

stuck to him "You expect him to know as much about the mill now as you

do, after all these years"

"Not at all I want hi him in at once"

"How much salary is he to have?"

"Three thousand a year"

"Three thousand! Why, it will take all of that to buy him a car"