THE SHEET OF FIGURES At that time Stoner had been in the employment of Mallalieu and Cotherstone for some five or six years.

He was then twenty-seven years of age.

He was a young man of some ability--sharp, alert, quick at figures, good at correspondence, punctual, willing: he could run the business in the absence of its owners.

The two partners appreciated Stoner, and they had gradually increased his salary until it reached the sum of two pounds twelve shillings and sixpence per week.

In their opinion a young single man ought to have done very well on that: Mallalieu and Cotherstone had both done very well on less when they were clerks in that long vanished past of which they did not care to think.
But Stoner was a young man of tastes.