Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1909-07-15
which he had been lingering and went

which he had been lingering and wen
into the directors room. There had beer
no note of JOY among his associates. HI
knew that he was not popular witt
them; he was not, in their sense, gooC
fellow. When they rushed off aftel
hours to the ball games or horse races
he never Joined them. When their books
did not balance he never volunteered tC
help them. As for himself, he always
balanced, and did not need their help
and thy hated him for it. This was his
hour of triumph, but he went to his vic
tory without the cheer of his comrades
Later. when need arose for creating
the position of assistant cashier, it was
natural that the new desk should be as,
signed to Wheaton. He was faithful and
competent; neither Porter nor Thompson
had son to install in the bank and, as
they said to each other and to their fel-
low directors, Wheaton had two. distin-
gushing qualiications-he did his work
and he kept his mouth shut
In the course of time Thompson
health broke down and the doctors order
ed him away to New Mexico, and again
there seemed nothing to do but to pro
mote Wheaton. Thompson wished to sell
his stock and resign, but Porter would not
have it so but when. after two years, it
was clear that the cashier would never
again be fit for continuous service in the
bank. Wheaton was duly elected cashier
and Thompson was made vice president
The relations between Porter and
Wheaton We're strictly of business char
acter. This was not by intention on Por-
ter's part. lie assumed that at some
time he or Thompson had known all
about Wheaton's antecedents; and after
so many years of satisfactory service
during the greater part of which the
bank had been protected against Whea-
ton, as against all the rest of the en-
ployes, by a bonding company, he accept
ed the cashier without any question. Be
fore Evelyn's return he had one day ex-
pressed to Whea ton his satisfaction that
he would soon have home again, and
Wheaton remarked with civil sympathy
that Miss Porter must now be quite a
young lady
'Oh, yes; you must come up to the
house when we get going again. Porter
answered
Wheaton had seen the inside of few
houses in Clarkson. He had a recollec-
ton of having been sent to Porter's sew
eral times, while he was still an errand
boy in the bank, to fetch Porter's bag on
occasions when the president had been
called away Unexpectedly. He remem-
bered Evelyn Porter as she used to come
as child and sit in the carriage outside
the bank to wait for her father; the
Porters stood to him them, and now, for
wealth and power.
Raridan had contempt for Wheaton's
intellectual deficiencies; and praise Of
Wheaton's steadiness and success vexed
him as having some sting for himself ;
but his own amiable impulses got the bet
ter of his prejudices, and he showed
Wheaton many kindnesses When the
others at The Bachelors nagged Whea.
ton, it was Raridan VINO threw himself
into the controversy to take Wheaton's
part. He took him to call at some of
the houses he knew best, and though this
was a matter of propinquity he knew
nevertheless that he preferred Wheaton
to the others in the house. Wheaton
was not noisy nor pretentious and the
others were sometimes both.
Wheaton soon found it easy to do
things that he had never thought of do
ing before. He became known to the
florist and haberdasher; there was a lit
tie Hambletonian at a certain liverymans
which Wary Raridan drove a good deal
and he had learned from Wary how
pleasant it was to drive out to the new
country club in a runabout instead of
using the street car, which left margin
of plebeian walking at the end of the
line But while he acquired the superb
cial graces, he did not lose his instinc-
tive thrift he had never attempted to
plunge, even on what his associates at
The Bachelors called sure things" and
he was equally incapable of personal ex-
travagances. If he bought flowers he sent
them where they wOuIu tell in his favor.
If he had five dollars to give to the Ic
Fund for the poor. he considered that
when the newspaper printed his name in
its list of acknowledgements between
Timothy Margrave, who gave fifty dol
lars. and William Porter, who gave twen-
ty-ive. he had received an adequate re-
turn on his investment.
(To be continued.)