CHAPTER IV.
It was Templeton Thorpe's contention that Braden was a family investment, and that a good investment will take care of itself if properly handled.
He considered himself quite capable of making a man of Braden, but he did not allow the boy to think that the job was a one-sided undertaking.
Braden worked for all that he received.

There was no silver platter, no golden spoon in Mr.Thorpe's cupboard.

They understood each other perfectly and Templeton Thorpe was satisfied with his investment.
That is why his eyes twinkled when Braden burst into the library after his fruitless appeal to Mrs.Tresslyn.He smiled as one smiles with relief when a craft he is watching glides safely but narrowly past a projecting abutment.
"Calm yourself," he remarked after Braden's somewhat wild and incoherent beginning.

"And sit down.

You will not get anywhere pacing this twenty by thirty room, and you are liable to run into something immovable if you don't stop glaring at me and watch out where you are going instead." "Sit down ?" shouted Braden, stopping before the old man in the chair, his hands clinched and his teeth showing.