Benis had always cherished a warm admiration for the commercial astuteness which he conceived himself to have inherited.

He would have been, he thought, exactly like his father--if he had cared for the drudgery of business.

So it was a habit of his, when in a quandary, to consider what his parent would have done and then to do likewise--an excellent rule if he had ever succeeded in applying it properly.

But there were always so many intruding details.
Take the present predicament, for instance.

He could scarcely picture his father in these precise circumstances.