Carman by
his intelligence, industry, and tact with customers, that he advanced
him rapidly, and gave him, before he was eighteen years of age, the
most reliable position in the store. But James had learned something
more from his employer than how to do business well. He had learned to
be dishonest. He had never forgotten the first lesson he had received
in this bad science; he had acted upon it, not only in two instances,
but in a hundred, and almost always to the injury of Mr. Carman. He
had long since given up waiting for mistakes to be made in his favor,
but originated them in the varied and complicated transactions of a
large business in which he was trusted implicitly.
James grew sharp, cunning, and skilful; always on the alert; always
bright, and ready to meet any approaches towards a discovery of his
wrong-doing by his employer, who held him in the highest regard.
Thus it went on until James Lewis was in his twentieth year, when the
merchant had his suspicions aroused by a letter that spoke of the
young man as not keeping the most respectable company, and as spending
money too freely for a clerk on a moderate salary.
Before this time James had removed his mother into a pleasant house,
for which he paid a rent of four hundred dollars; his salary was eight
hundred, but he deceived his mother by telling her it was fifteen
hundred.
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