B. C. BURTON, the president of the Riverside National Bank, was a
widower, and led an existence that can be described as calmly and
good-naturedly detached. He was a younger son of a father long since
dead, who had established the Burton, Corley & Co. bank, which had
prospered, and finally taken a national banking charter. Corley had
furnished the capital for the original bank, and the Burton family had
run the business. B. C.--he was usually called by his initials--had
married Corley's only daughter, and had thus acquired the Corley money.
After his wife's death his wealth was estimated as a hundred thousand
dollars; the truth was that old Corley had invested badly, and left his
daughter no more than twenty-five thousand. At the time of his marriage
B. C. owned nothing but his share of the bank stock, worth about twenty
thousand.
In spite of his reputation as a banker, B. C. was a poor business man
where his own affairs were concerned. During his wife's life his own
bank stock increased in value to about twenty-five thousand dollars, but
he managed to lose all of the twenty-five thousand his wife had brought
him, and when she died he had nothing but his house and his bank stock.
In the four or five years since his wife's death he had continued his
misfortunes, and had pledged fifteen thousand dollars' worth of his bank
stock to old Peter Grimsby, one of the bank's directors. Thus, while
Riverbank counted B. C. Burton a wealthy man, the bank president was
worth a scant ten thousand dollars, plus a house worth five or six
thousand. The bank stock brought him six per cent, and his salary was
two thousand; he had an income of about twenty-six hundred dollars which
the town imagined to be ten or fifteen thousand.
Being a childless widower he could live well enough on his income in
Riverbank, but, had it not been for his placidity of temper, he would
have been a discontented and disappointed man. Even so his first half
hour after awaking in the morning was a bad half hour. He opened his
eyes feeling depressed and weary, with his life an empty hull. For half
an hour he felt miserable and hopeless; but he had a sound body, and a
cup of coffee and solid breakfast set him up for the day; he became a
good-natured machine for the transaction of routine banking business.
Some twist of humor or bit of carelessness had marked the choice of the
names of the two Burton boys. The elder had been named Andrew D., which
in itself was nothing odd; neither was there anything odd that the
younger should have been given the name of the father's partner,
Benjamin Corley; but the town was quick to adopt the initials--A. D.
and B. C.--and to see the humor in them, and the two men were ever after
known by them. When they were boys they were nicknamed Anna (for Anno
Domini) and Beef (for Before Christ), and the names were not ill-chosen.
The elder boy was as nervous as a girl, and Ben was as stolid as an ox.
They never got along well together and, soon after B. C. entered the
bank, A. D.--who had been cashier--left it and went into retail trade.
A. D. was the type of man that seems smeared all over with whatever he
undertakes. Had he been a baker he would have been covered with flour
and dough from head to foot--dough would have been in his hair. Had
B. C. been a baker he would have emerged from his day's work without
a fleck of flour upon him. A. D. blundered into things, and became
saturated with them; B. C.'s affairs were like the skin of a ripe
tangerine--they clothed him but were hardly an integral part of him.
Life's rind fitted him loosely.
When David Dean entered the bank, B. C. was closeted with a borrower,
and the dominie was obliged to wait a few minutes. He stood at the
window, his hands clasped behind him, gazing into the street, and trying
to arrange the words in which he would ask the banker-trustee for the
advance he desired. The door to the banker's private office opened, the
customer came out, and the door closed again. A minute later the cashier
told David he might enter.
B. C. was sitting at his desk, coatless but immaculate. He turned and
smiled.
“Good morning, Mr. Dean,” he said. “Another good com day. You and I
don't get much pleasure out of this hot weather, I am afraid, but it is
money in the farmers' pockets.”
He did nothing to make David's way easy. His very smiling good nature
made it more difficult. David plunged headlong into his business.
“Mr. Burton, could you--do you think the trustees would--grant me a
further advance on my salary!”
The banker showed no surprise, no resentment. “I dislike to ask it,”
David continued. “I feel that the trustees have already done all that
they should. It is my place to keep within my income--that I know--but I
seem to have fallen behind in the last few years. I have had to run into
debt to some extent. There is one debt that should be paid; it should be
paid immediately; otherwise--”
“Don't stand,” said B. C., touching a vacant chair with his finger. “Of
course you know I am only one of the trustees, Mr. Dean. I should not
pretend to give you an answer without consulting the others, but I
suppose I was made a trustee because I know something of business. They
seem to have left the finances of the church rather completely in my
hands; I think I have brought order out of chaos. Here is the balance
sheet, brought down to the first of the month.” David took the paper and
stared at it, but the figures meant nothing to him. He felt already that
Burton meant to refuse his request “Let me see it,” B. C. said, and his
very method of handing the statement to David and then taking it again
for examination was characteristic. “Why, we are in better shape than
I thought! This is very good indeed! We are really quite ahead of
ourselves; you see here we have paid five hundred dollars on the
mortgage a full six months before the time the payment was due. And here
is payment made for roofing the church, and paid promptly. Usually we
keep our bills waiting. Then here is the advance made you. This is a
very good statement, Mr. Dean. And now let me see; cash on hand! Well,
that item is low; very low! Twenty-eight dollars and forty cents. You
understand that, do you! That is the cash we have available for all
purposes.”
He had not refused David; he had shown him that his request could not be
granted.
“Of course, then,” said David, “the trustees have nothing to advance,
even were they so inclined. I thank you quite as much.”
“Now, don't hurry,” said B. C. “You don't come in here often, and when
you do I ought to be able to spare you a few minutes. Sit down. At our
last meeting the trustees were speaking of your salary. We think you
should receive more than you are getting; if the church could afford it
we would arrange it at once, but you know how closely we have to figure
to make ends meet.”
“I have not complained,” said David.
“Indeed not! But we think of these things; we don't forget you, you see.
I dare say we know almost as much about your affairs as you know.
I believe I can tell you the name of the creditor you spoke of. It's old
Herwig, isn't it!”
“Yes.”
“I thought so,” said B. C. “Of course I knew you traded there, and it
is a good thing to patronize our own church members, but it is a pity
we haven't a live grocer in the church. I had to leave Herwig; my
housekeeper couldn't get what she wanted there. Now, just let me tell
you something, and put your mind at rest: if you paid Herwig whatever
you owe him you might as well take the money down to the river and throw
it in! Herwig is busted right now, and he knows it. If he collected
every cent due him he would be just as insolvent. He is dead of dry rot;
it is all over but the funeral. The only reason his creditors haven't
closed him up is that it is not worth their while; I don't suppose
they'll get a cent on the dollar. So don't worry about him--he's
hopeless.”
“But what I owe him--”
“Wouldn't be a drop in the bucket!” said B. C. “Don't worry about it.
Don't think about it. And now, about a possible increase in your salary;
I think we may be able to manage that before long. Lucille Hardcome
seems to be taking a great interest in your outside church work.”
“She seems eager to give all the help she can.”
“That's good! She is a wealthy woman, Mr. Dean; wealthier than you
imagine, I believe. Do what you reasonably can to keep up her interest.
She has done very little for the church yet in a money way. She can
easily afford to do as much as Mary Derling is doing. Of course we
understand she has had great expense in all these things she is doing;
that house done over and all; she has probably used more than her
income, but she can't get much more into the house without building an
addition. She is thoroughly Riverbank now, and we have let her take a
prominent part in the church and the Sunday school; she owes it to us to
give liberally. I think she could give a thousand dollars a year, if she
chose, and not feel it. The hundred she gives now is nothing; suppose we
say five hundred dollars. If we can get her to give five hundred we can
safely add two hundred and fifty of it to your salary. And you deserve
it, and ought to have it. If we can add that two hundred and fifty
dollars to your salary during my trusteeship I shall be delighted. We
all feel that way--all the trustees.”
“That is more than I ever dared hope,” said David. “It is kind of you to
think of it.”
“I wish we could make it a thousand,” said B. C. sincerely. “Well, I
don't want to keep you all day in this hot office. Just humor Lucille
Hardcome a little; she's high-handed but I think she means all right.”
David went out. The sun was hotter than ever, but for a block or two he
did not notice it. Two hundred and fifty dollars increase! It would mean
that in a few years he could be even with the world again! Then, as he
toiled up the hot hill, his immediate needs returned to his mind, and
he thought of Herwig. Whether the old grocer must inevitably fail in
business or not the debt David owed him was an honestly contracted debt,
and the old man had a right to expect payment; all David's creditors had
a right to expect payment. His horror of debt returned in full force.
There was not a place where he could look for a dollar; he felt bound
and constrained, guilty, shamed.
Before the manse Lucille Hardcome's low-hung carriage stood. He entered
the house.
“David!” called 'Thusia from the sitting room, and he hung his hat on
the rack and went in to her.
“Lucille is waiting in the study,” said 'Thusia. “She has been waiting
an hour; Alice is with her.”
“'Thusia, what has happened!” he cried, for his wife's face showed she
had received a blow.
“Oh, David! David!” she exclaimed. “It is Alice! She is engaged!”
“Not Alice! Not our Alice!” cried David. “But--”
'Thusia burst into tears. She reached for his hand, and clung to it.
“Oh, David! To Lanny Welsh--do you know anything about him!” she wept.
“I don't know anything about him at all, except he was a bartender, and
Roger knows him.”
“Our Alice! Lanny Welsh!” said David, “But nothing of the sort can be
allowed, 'Thusia. It cannot be!”
“Oh, I hoped you would say that!” said 'Thusia. “But don't wait now. Go
to Lucille at once!”
So David bent and kissed his wife, and walked across the hall to his
study.