Where Two Ways Met Read Online Free

some matters I want to bring to your attention at once and that will give you a general survey of what I am expecting of you.”
    Paige settled down to study the list and to listen to the instructions of his mentor, trying meanwhile to rid himself of the feeling he had of distrust of this man. What was it that gave him that impression?
    And in between, his thoughts reverted to the daughter. Was that girl a sample of what the home girls had become while their brothers were off fighting? If so, he wanted none of them.
    Then his mind jerked back to the phraseology of some of the papers given him to consider and sign. There were tricky sentences here and there that he wanted to consider further before signing, and he noted down their phrasing and location.
    Cautiously he went through them slowly, not hurrying, and becoming more and more aware that he was being keenly watched as he progressed. Well, what of it? If there was anything phony in all this, now was the time to discover it and to bring it out into the open, before he was committed to anything.
    “Well?” said the older man at last, with a shade of impatience in his voice, as Paige came to the final paper and laid it thoughtfully down upon the rest before him on the table. “Do you find it all perfectly understandable? Are you ready to sign them?”
    The younger man lifted clear, troubled eyes.
    “I’m not quite sure,” he answered gravely. “Perhaps I am not used enough to such phraseology to quite understand its import. For instance, the third paragraph of this first paper.” His eyes quickly searched out the sharp little check his pencil had made as he read the papers over. “Do I understand that there is no leeway given a man who fails in a payment at the required date, except the regular three months? I have in mind a man who has always been honorable in all his business dealings, and does not take ventures that he cannot reasonably expect to fulfill. Just suppose such a man were taken suddenly very ill, with a long, tedious recovery that might take all his available funds. Do I understand that there would be no provision for him to catch up and recover his property when his health was restored? Would he lose at a blow all he had already paid?”
    “Oh, of course—in such a case—if there were hope of his getting back his earning ability, an exception
might
be made in his case,” answered the calm, assured voice of the rich man. “But, you understand, one has to be very clear in these statements and not leave any loopholes for an easygoing man to slip out of paying. However, if you object to that phrase, a few words more or less could be added, qualifying the statement. Just make a note of that and I’ll see that it is changed.”
    “And here again,” went on the young man, “in the fourth paper there is a questionable sentence. I would not like to attempt to try to sell something to a man in the face of that third sentence.”
    Mr. Chalmers bent, frowning, over the paper, and read the sentence carefully.
    “Yes,” he said thoughtfully, “I can see what you mean. But that, too, can be changed. In fact, I’ll have my lawyer go over the whole thing and get this matter made entirely clear. I can see you are a conscientious young man, and perhaps not thoroughly conversant with the language necessary to be used to make a contract like this binding in court, but of course that does not mean we will not be careful to give every man his rights, even if it means in some cases being a little hard on ourselves. But suppose I take these papers to the lawyer, and you come back this afternoon. You and I can go over them again and see if you find any possible objection then, before you sign. And were there other places that troubled you?”
    “Yes, here, and here, and here.” Paige fluttered over the papers and left no doubt in the mind of his new employer that he was a keen young man who could not be easily hoodwinked, and must therefore be treated