I always make it a rule to stop
work when I'm done."
"Perhaps you're right," said Corey, yielding.
"Come along down as far as the boat with me. There's a
little matter I want to talk over with you."
It was a business matter, and related to Corey's proposed
connection with the house.
The next day the head book-keeper, who lunched at the long
counter of the same restaurant with Corey, began to talk
with him about Lapham. Walker had not apparently got
his place by seniority; though with his forehead, bald far
up toward the crown, and his round smooth face, one might
have taken him for a plump elder, if he had not looked
equally like a robust infant. The thick drabbish yellow
moustache was what arrested decision in either direction,
and the prompt vigour of all his movements was that of
a young man of thirty, which was really Walker's age.
He knew, of course, who Corey was, and he had waited
for a man who might look down on him socially to make
the overtures toward something more than business
acquaintance; but, these made, he was readily responsive,
and drew freely on his philosophy of Lapham and his affairs.
"I think about the only difference between people in
this world is that some know what they want, and some
don't. Well, now," said Walker, beating the bottom of his
salt-box to make the salt come out, "the old man knows
what he wants every time.
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