Harold Titus

“ Mamie bit her lips for she knew that when a man is stooped and has been a shipping-clerk until his hair is scant and silver he is not overly popular with many employers in Greater New York. She was not so sure that his brother’s widow would not be without that draft many, many weeks.
Then her agile little mind had commenced to pry and the things she found out about the ambition and industry of Merle Grinnell, abetted by her propensity for cataloging character, satisfied her as to the method by which Peter had been displaced. ”

“ Because of this intimacy with a white-haired man, Mamie was snickered at and generally depreciated at the Brandt house. Perhaps the change in the girl had something to do with this disfavor, because she ceased to be so thin and took on better color. Though she lost none of her alert self-sufficiency, the hardness of her lip and eye gave way to a charming simplicity, making the women more critical and the young men more disgusted because she would choose Peter above them. ”

“ He wrenched Mamie again so viciously that she cried out and went to one knee on the walk, looking swiftly at Peter, helpless anxiety on her tight-drawn, white face.
“Give it up, you——!” the man demanded, using a word that no man should use. “I’ll beat you till you——”
When his cane came down on the fellow’s forearm it made such a queer crunching that Peter stopped, frightened in spite of his righteous wrath. ”

“ AT MRS. BRANDT’S young Merle easily managed to retain the center of the stage. Life was almost wholly good with him. The attention he commanded gratified his avid ego; his progress at the delicate task of undermining Peter Howard was more lively than he could have hoped for.
The one jarring note in the whole was the fact that Mamie’s attitude was such that he felt the others must be aware of the contempt with which she held him; and for Mamie’s good will he would have bartered that of all the rest. Never a spoken word indicated the girl’s condition of mind ”

“ Merle Grinnell didn’t appreciate what Peter did for him; that is as certain as daylight.
Mrs. Brandt, who had never expected to come to it and complainingly conducted the boarding-house where Peter lived did not realize that he stood between her and her boarders, turning the edge of her contentiousness until the place was made habitable for those who slept in her lumpy beds and sat regularly about her monotonous table. ”

“ Not so long after Mamie was an established character at the house Merle Grinnell came to the city. He was an Ohio boy with light hair and dark eyes and a manner of dressing that caused him to approximate the lithograph lures of manufacturers of smart clothing; bandy legs, narrow shoulders and in between an abdomen so negligible that it was a marvel how it contained essential organs.
People would judge Merle in just one of two ways, either with envy or contempt; that is, all people except Peter Howard.
Young Grinnell went to work at Wolf’s, toiling in the shipping department under Peter. ”

“ The new boy began his overtures by falling in beside Peter at lunch-time. He assumed an earnest, respectful attitude and before the meal was over he had reached out a tentacle of flattery, telling Peter with evident shyness that he must be of inestimable value to a place like Wolf’s. It was human of Peter to respond. ”

“ Once or twice we’ve tried to break in someone else to be ready if anything happened to me, but none of the boys we’ve tried have made a go of it.”
“It must be hard to learn. It’s a beaut, though!” said Merle, and Peter’s cheeks flushed with the inventor’s pride.
The tutoring continued at intervals for weeks and when he was well on his way toward the mastery of the system the cunning of the boy unearthed another fact. Wolf himself regularly returned from lunch during the middle of the noon hour and passed through the shipping department on the way to his office. ”

“ PETER HOWARD was one of those rare individuals who are always helping somebody. Not a philanthropist, understand, for most philanthropists are bound by an uneasy conscience or ambition to self service ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1967, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 56 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”