“I have been wanting to talk to you for some time, Mr. Kling, about Masie,” he began abruptly.  “I may be going home to England, perhaps for a few weeks, perhaps longer, and I should like to take her with me.  I have a sister who would look after her, and the trip would do her a world of good.  I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but I am a little freer now to carry out the plan I had for her.  And so I have come to propose it to you.”

Otto listened gravely, his fat features frozen into calm.  This clerk of his had made him many startling propositions, and every surrender had brought him profit.  But turning over Beesving to him meant something so different that the father in him stood aghast.  Yet his old habit of deference did not desert him when at last he spoke: 

“Vell, vat vill I do?  You knew I don’t got notin’ but Beesving.  Don’t she get everytin’ vere she is?  I do all de schoolin’ and de clothes and Aunty Gossburger look after her.  Vhen she gets older maybe perhaps she vould like a trip.  And den maybe ve both go and leave you here to mind de shop in de summer-time.  But now she’s notin’ but jus’ Beesving, vid her head full of skippin’ aroun’.  No, I don’t tink I can do dat for you.  I do most anytin’ for you, but my little girl, you see, dat come pretty close.  Dat make a awful hole in me if Beesving go avay.  No, you mustn’t ask me dot.”

“Not if it were for her good?”

“Yes, vell, of course, but how do I know dot?  And vot you vant to go avay for?  Dot’s more vorse as Beesving.  Ain’t I pay you enough?  Maybe you vants a little interest in de business?  I vas tinkin’ about dat only yesterday.  Ve vill talk about dot sometimes.”

Felix laughed gently.

“No, I don’t wish any interest in the business.  You pay me quite enough for the work I do, and I am quite willing to continue to serve you as long as I can.  But Masie should not be brought up in these surroundings much longer.  Perhaps you would be willing to send her to a good school away from here, if I could arrange it.  Either here or in England.”

Otto threw up his hands; he was becoming indignant, his mind more and more set against Felix’s proposition.

“Vell, but vat’s de matter vid de school she has now?  She is more dan on de top of all de classes.  De superintendent told me so ven he vas in here last veek buying Christmas presents.  I sold him dat old chair you got Hans to put a new leg on.  You remember dot chair.  Vell, dat vas better as a new von vhen Hans got trough.  Hadn’t been for you, dot old chair vould be kicking around now, and I vouldn’t have de fifteen dollars he paid me for it.  I vish sometimes you look around for more chairs like dot.”

Felix nodded in assent, reading the Dutchman’s obstinate mind in the shopkeeper’s sudden return to business questions.  If Masie’s future was to be helped, another hand than his own must be stretched out.  He turned on his heel, and was about to regain his chair, when Otto, craning his head, called out: