His abilities presently drew the attention of the heads of the Shoreditch firm for which he worked, and when the post of a foreman in a West-end shop, in which they were largely interested, fell vacant, it was their influence which put Sandy Grieve into the well-paid and coveted post.

He could hardly believe his own good fortune.

The letter in which he announced it to his father reached the farm just as the last phase of his mother's long martyrdom was developing.

The pair, already old--James with work and anxiety, his wife with sickness--read it together.

They shut it up without a word.