Company's various departments, the system of the thing, you know, and-a complete list of customers, the big fellows. As for the stock, MacPherson said he'd bought enough for a working basis and that, in Chicago, they could make things cheaper and of better material than is being used in our factory here, and still be able to undersell the Bennett Company and make a profit."

"But that would be a disgraceful thing to do-"

Her husband interrupted her quickly. "Let me finish, dear. I want it all off my chest. We can discuss it afterward. I didn't have time to answer MacPherson after I'd understood clearly the gist of the thing. Andrews came into the hotel and joined us, telling me I was needed at the office, so I had to rush off without getting anywhere. I left MacPherson and Andrews there together. As I started to go, MacPherson half turned in his chair. 'I'll see you again, laddie, in a week or so,' he said softly as Andrews was giving his order, and with that I went out. And there you are!" He finished with a sigh of weariness and knocked the ashes from his pipe.

Thea spoke with a rush. "Well, my intuition was all wrong. Never would I have thought Mr. MacPherson that kind of a man. Never! I can't understand it. If Mr. Bennett were only not ill! The thing to do, of course, is for you to tell Andrews since he's taking Mr. Bennett's place, but I know you dislike him intensely."

"Remember the five thousand," Hugh advised. "Remember that I'd be throwing away my chance if I mentioned it to anyone."

"It's a great salary, Hugh," she admitted. "You will have to think it out for yourself." He looked at her keenly.

"I'm very tired," she announced briefly, "I think I shall go upstairs."

Hugh rose at once and walked with her to the foot of the stair-case. "I'll be with you presently," she heard him say, "as soon as I smoke my pipe; but you go to sleep-don't sit up there waiting for me."

UN

INTOLD possibilities stretched themselves before Hugh. "A general knowledge of the way his firm did business." MacPherson had said something like that. Why, he knew the ins and outs of their business to a T.

There was Carter. A good friend of his and one of the very best in the buying department. He could readily get any information from that source he desired.

Jameson, too, of the financial end, often talked to him of that side of things, so his interest there would be taken for granted.

The producing department was more difficult. Brown was a queer chap, reticent to a degree. But his assistant, Keebler, was as talkative as Brown was quiet. He could be persuaded easily to tell all he knew.

And Godfrey was head of the sales department. How very simple it would all be.

Then, unfortunately, across his vision, came the white and kindly face of Horace Bennett, the president of the firm. Bennett had taken him in-had helped him along right up to his present post. He knew that he had stood in line for the next promotion; but Mr. Bennett had been taken ill and, for six months now, Andrews had been acting-president. The position that Hugh had expected to fill had gone to a friend of Andrews from the outside.

Godfrey had borne the slight silently because of his fondness for the old president.

"But, I can't go on because of him, when he's not there. I don't care a hang for the rest of them," he reasoned. "Every man has his price. I guess five thousand is mine."

But, somehow, the thought of Horace Bennett persisted, even after he had gone quietly to bed.

The next morning found him restless and ill at ease. His mind refused its usual tasks. Finally, with a muttered ejaculation at his own foolishness, he walked over to Miss LePaige, Andrews's secretary.

"Ask your chief if he will spare me a few moments," he requested curtly.

The girl came back in a few moments to say that Mr. Andrews would see Mr. Godfrey.

Hugh smiled grimly, as he walked towards the sanctum of Julius P. Andrews.

As he came into the room, Andrews called Miss Le Paige, "You don't mind waiting a moment, Godfrey, do you? I've just one letter to dictate; almost forgot it.”

Hugh nodded silently and sat down.

"Tell him," Andrews went on to Miss Le Paige, "that the company, in general, and I, in particular, are glad of his recovered health, and that we hope to have him with us sometime in the future. That is all now," he finished and turned to Godfrey.

The girl hesitated, "Mr. Bennett is still in Colorado?" she inquired in a low tone.

Andrews swung round in his chair impatiently. "I think he's on his way east," he replied tartly. "Get his correct address from Jameson."

I

Na conversation on thrift, Mr. Charles M. Schwab once told me the following story: "Not long ago the expenses of running my New York home became exorbitant. I called in the steward and said to him: 'George, I want to strike a bargain with you. I will give you ten per cent of the first thousand dollars you save in house expenses; twenty-five per cent of the second thousand, and one-half of the third thousand.' The expense of running the house was soon cut in two." The wise expenditure of one's income, whether it be small or large, involves the same principles as the investment and handling of the businessman's capital. And the successful businessman carries these principles into the conduct of all his affairs, his personal and household expenditures, as well as those relating directly to his business. Even multi-millionaires have to be thrifty or their millions would take wings.

TH

WHEN

Whether the income runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars, or only a thousand or two, the management of the home is the wife's business. Unfortunately, many young wives do not know how to spend wisely, because they were given no opportunity to become familiar with financial matters until they married. The result is, when they start housekeeping they are ignorant of the laws of thrift; they have never learned by actual practice the real value of money, how to handle it, how to use it, how to get the most out of it, how to make a little go just as far as possible. In short, they never learned how to finance themselves, and know nothing whatever about financing the home. So, when the husband turns over his salary, or a certain allowance for the household expenses, the young, inexperienced wife makes a very bad mess of the She gets into a muddle, bungles things up, and spends unwisely, often extravagantly, because she has never learned to get the perspective of a definite income, so as to know the right proportion for the different expenditures, to know what she can afford and what she cannot.

HERE is no other problem which causes so much discord, so much scrapping and unhappiness in the home as the money question. And in a great majority of cases, all the trouble is caused by the lack of thrift, the ignoring of all business principles in financing the home. Because they have not been trained from childhood in the wise expenditure of money, the tendency of most young married people is to spend to the limit of their income and often far beyond it— at the very start when they begin housekeeping. If they only knew how to start right, by adopting the budget system, planning their expenditures in every particular-food, clothing, rent, recreation, amusements, etc.-according to their earnings, always spending less than they earn, always laying aside a reasonable percentage for future needs and possible emergencies, what a difference it would make in their lives! What heartaches and heartbreaks, what discords and misery in the home could be saved!

whole financial matter.

T

HERE are many pitiable cases where young married men find themselves in the dilemma of the one pictured on our cover this month— driven almost to desperation by the bills run up by an inexperienced wife. We often see young women, sincere and honest in their desire to help their husbands, but who had no training in financing themselves or in the handling of money previous to their marriage, developing extravagant habits in dress, and running into debt for luxuries. We find these wives of moderatesalaried husbands ordering expensive dishes in restaurants, riding in taxicabs, patronizing expensive florists, doing all sorts of things which are away beyond their means.

I know of an instance of this kind. The young wife of a college professor with a salary of two

thousand a year, ran up accounts in the department stores, at garages, at the florists, at dressmakers, and in all sorts of places, without realizing what she was doing. She did not know how careful she would need to be in spending her husband's small salary. It never entered her head to consider that marriage had changed her financial status; that instead of being the daughter of a rich father, she was the wife of a poor man, and that her father would no longer send checks for her purchases when the bills were presented. Before she knew it she had run up large accounts that not only embarrassed her husband for several years, but brought great humiliation and suffering upon herself.

When the bills began to arrive and the young wife awoke to a full realization of her situation, rather than tell her husband, she pawned her jewelry, some of which were her wedding presents. Of course the husband I found it out, and was not only shocked to find himself heavily in debt, but seriously troubled because of his wife's deception, even though it was not quite ntentional. Her ig

norance of the art of

dream of owning a home of their own may be realized.

Theodore Roosevelt said, "If you would be sure that you are beginning right, begin to save. The habit of saving money, while it stiffens the will, also brightens the energies."

The moment a young man begins to save systematically, and to make wise investments, he becomes a larger man. He takes broader views of life. He begins to have a better opinion of himself, more confidence in his ability, in his power to shoulder responsibility, to make his own program, be his own boss. In early learning the lesson of thrift, he has taken the first step in the

LET

financing herself and the home was really the source of all the trouble.

E

VERY girl, as well as every boy, should have a common-sense training in business matters, should be brought up to spend money wisely and thriftily, not foolishly and extravagantly. The girl who has had such a training will not be all at sea when she gets married and has to run a home of her own. She will be pretty sure to make a good manager of her household finances, a far better one than the average man could by any possibility make.

I know of no other habit more valuable to a man or woman than the early formed habit of thrift; not the stingy, squeezing, holding on habit, but the habit of wise living and spending, the wise administration of one's money, of one's personal and domestic affairs. A provident wife can establish such a system in domestic affairs that, combined with her husband's efforts, the home budget will take on remarkably large proportions, and within a short time the

development of sturdy character, the sort of character that distinguishes the best type of self-made man.

I

was:

ONCE sent an interviewer to the late Marshall Field to ask him, among other things, what he considered the turning point in his career, and his answer "Saving the first five thousand dollars I ever had, when I might just as well have spent the modest salary I made. Possession of that sum, once I had it, gave me That I

the opportunity to meet opportunities. consider the turning point." John Jacob Astor, the founder of the Astor fortune, said that if it had not been for the saving of his first thousand he might have died in the almshouse.

Unless you make it a cast-iron rule to lay aside a certain percentage of your earnings each week, each month, you will never succeed in becoming a really independent man or woman. You will always be at the mercy of circumstances. No matter how small it may be, or if you have to go without a great many things you think you need, put a portion of your earnings away every year where it will be absolutely safe. You don't know what this will mean to you in case of illness, accident or some unlooked for emergency when a little ready money may save you from great suffering or financial ruin.

The thrift habit opens the door to opportunity. It means that a man has foresight and intelligence in planning his future. It is one of the foundation-stones of fortune and character.