Allen had studied the business problem with which he came daily in contact as closely as he could with the little experience which had as yet come to him.  What man of affairs does not recall how intangible was that turning-point, in his own early business career, before which he felt hopelessly submerged in that sea of infinite detail, vainly struggling to gauge its currents and to escape its undertow; after which he found himself advancing with steady strides, short at first, but gaining in power as the lesser responsibilities merged into greater ones!

Gorham’s business training, previous to the inception of the Consolidated Companies, had been in accord with the universal business code, quite at variance with the idealistic basis which he himself had now established.  Allen’s training had all been along Gorham’s idealistic thread.  It was perhaps natural, therefore, that Allen, under these circumstances, should look upon the transactions of the Consolidated Companies from a different viewpoint from that which Mr. Gorham took.  At all events, some of these business acts did not seem to the boy to be in full accord with the altruism which he had learned from his preceptor.  Allen had come to know most of the directors and some of the stockholders, and he was convinced that the prevailing instinct which controlled their relations to the Consolidated Companies and to its transactions was self-interest pure and simple.  There was no question that the Companies had accomplished important reductions in the necessities of life and in the cost of public utilities, as a result of which the people were radically benefited; but to Allen’s untrained mind even this seemed to be a clever business policy from the exercise of which the corporation gained more than it gave.  Already there had come to him a sense of apprehension as to what might happen if Mr. Gorham’s restraining hand should lose its present power, and the control should fall into the hands of men such as he conceived Covington and his sympathizers to be; and lately the boy had regarded this chance as not altogether remote.

Gorham never allowed Allen to discuss with him the personalities of any of the directors or stockholders with whom he came in contact.  This was partly due to his feeling that Allen was not as yet competent to form opinions of any value, and partly to his general principle that he must hold his own mind unprejudiced in his duty toward his associates.  For this reason, and for another which lay closer to his heart, the boy had never expressed to him his distrust of Covington, though he had been tempted to do so on more than one occasion.  Now, however, during the absence of his chief from the offices, Allen felt sure that a crisis was near at hand.  He knew that Covington was in constant communication with certain of the directors, and the nature of these conferences could perhaps be divined by the growing discontent which he saw developing among those upon whom he knew Gorham