Then, as if some sudden resolve had seized him, he walked quickly to the rear of the store in search of his employer.
Otto was poring over his books, his bald head glistening under the rays of the gas-jet, which he had lighted to assist him in his work, the morning being dark.
"I have been wanting to talk to you for some time, Mr.Kling, about Masie," he began abruptly.

"I may be going home to England, perhaps for a few weeks, perhaps longer, and I should like to take her with me.
I have a sister who would look after her, and the trip would do her a world of good.

I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but I am a little freer now to carry out the plan I had for her.

And so I have come to propose it to you." Otto listened gravely, his fat features frozen into calm.

This clerk of his had made him many startling propositions, and every surrender had brought him profit.