"That's a bad habit. Drop it. Get things done for you for nothing."
"Because I want you to be a business man when you grow up, and not merely a spender of money."
The boy looked troubled again. His confusion of thoughts sorted themselves into his declaration: "I don't want to be a ruler of men; I want people to like me."
"Mostly anyone wants that. It's a sign of weakness. Drop it."
"For one thing, because some day you'll have all my money and all my power. Just how big that is you can't realise yet. That's one reason. The other reason must lie with yourself--you must make yourself strong and afraid of nothing. How many fights did you have this term, before you got ill?"
It was clear from the boy's downcast eyes that he had been beaten in his fight.
"That's bad. That's disobeying my orders. Didn't I tell you to fight every boy in the school until they acknowledged you master?"
"You must make yourself strong enough. It's not a question of muscle, but will-power. When you're properly over this illness, I'll pick you out a school in England with about thirty or forty boys of your own age. They're soft, these English boys, softer than Americans. I want you to lick your way through them, and then I'll take you back to the States to polish up on Americans."
After a pause came this question: "Dad, must I have all your money when I grow up? Couldn't some one else have some of it?"
"Sonny, don't look at it that way. You're born to an empire; try and make yourself fit for it. I'm building it for you. It'll be a glorious inheritance.... Now throw those wheels overboard, and run along and find Mr Chips."
Presently Arthur Dean came to the private deck to ask if Larssen had any orders for him. He was acting as interim private secretary.
The shipowner dictated a few messages to be sent by wireless, and then remarked:
"When you're back in London, I suppose you'll be going to see your young lady as well as your parents?"
"Well, I don't doubt that'll come in its own good time."
"You don't think I ought to----?" began Dean tentatively.
"I don't interfere in that. It's your own private affair and no concern of mine. You can afford to marry her on your present salary. If she's a girl likely to make a good wife, I hope you _will_ marry her. I like my employees to be married. It's healthy for them and makes them better business men. Is she an ambitious girl?"