Fulkerson laughed, and asked him how soon he thought he could come on to New York.

He refused to reopen the question of March's fitness with him; he said they, had gone into that thoroughly, but he recurred to it with Mrs.March, and confirmed her belief in his good sense on all points.

She had been from the first moment defiantly confident of her husband's ability, but till she had talked the matter over with Fulkerson she was secretly not sure of it; or, at least, she was not sure that March was not right in distrusting himself.

When she clearly understood, now, what Fulkerson intended, she had no longer a doubt.

He explained how the enterprise differed from others, and how he needed for its direction a man who combined general business experience and business ideas with a love for the thing and a natural aptness for it.