________________________________________________
_ About five o'clock that afternoon, the old gentleman came back to
Adams's house; and when Alice opened the door, he nodded, walked
into the "living-room" without speaking; then stood frowning as
if he hesitated to decide some perplexing question.
"Well, how is he now?" he asked, finally.
"The doctor was here again a little while ago; he thinks papa's
coming through it. He's pretty sure he will."
"Something like the way it was last spring?"
"Yes."
"Not a bit of sense to it!" Lamb said, gruffly. "When he was
getting well the other time the doctor told me it wasn't a
regular stroke, so to speak-- this 'cerebral effusion' thing.
Said there wasn't any particular reason for your father to expect
he'd ever have another attack, if he'd take a little care of
himself. Said he could consider himself well as anybody else
long as he did that."
"Yes. But he didn't do it!"
Lamb nodded, sighed aloud, and crossed the room to a chair. "I
guess not," he said, as he sat down. "Bustin' his health up over
his glue-works, I expect."
"Yes."
"I guess so; I guess so." Then he looked up at her with a
glimmer of anxiety in his eyes. "Has he came to yet?"
"Yes. He's talked a little. His mind's clear; he spoke to mama
and me and to Miss Perry." Alice laughed sadly. "We were lucky
enough to get her back, but papa didn't seem to think it was
lucky. When he recognized her he said, 'Oh, my goodness, 'tisn't
YOU, is it!'"
"Well, that's a good sign, if he's getting a little cross. Did
he--did he happen to say anything-- for instance, about me?"
This question, awkwardly delivered, had the effect of removing
the girl's pallor; rosy tints came quickly upon her cheeks.
"He--yes, he did," she said. "Naturally, he's troubled
about--about----" She stopped.
"About your brother, maybe?"
"Yes, about making up the----"
"Here, now," Lamb said, uncomfortably, as she stopped again.
"Listen, young lady; let's don't talk about that just yet. I
want to ask you: you understand all about this glue business, I
expect, don't you?"
"I'm not sure. I only know----"
"Let me tell you," he interrupted, impatiently. "I'll tell you
all about it in two words. The process belonged to me, and your
father up and walked off with it; there's no getting around THAT
much, anyhow."
"Isn't there?" Alice stared at him. "I think you're mistaken,
Mr. Lamb. Didn't papa improve it so that it virtually belonged
to him?"
There was a spark in the old blue eyes at this. "What?" he
cried. "Is that the way he got around it? Why, in all my life I
never heard of such a----" But he left the sentence unfinished;
the testiness went out of his husky voice and the anger out of
his eyes. "Well, I expect maybe that was the way of it," he
said. "Anyhow, it's right for you to stand up for your father;
and if you think he had a right to it----"
"But he did!" she cried.
"I expect so," the old man returned, pacifically. "I expect so,
probably. Anyhow, it's a question that's neither here nor there,
right now. What I was thinking of saying--well, did your father
happen to let out that he and I had words this morning?"
"No."
"Well, we did." He sighed and shook his head. "Your
father--well, he used some pretty hard expressions toward me,
young lady. They weren't SO, I'm glad to say, but he used 'em to
me, and the worst of it was he believed 'em. Well, I been
thinking it over, and I thought I'd just have a kind of little
talk with you to set matters straight, so to speak."
"Yes, Mr. Lamb."
"For instance," he said, "it's like this. Now, I hope you won't
think I mean any indelicacy, but you take your brother's case,
since we got to mention it, why, your father had the whole thing
worked out in his mind about as wrong as anybody ever got
anything. If I'd acted the way your father thought I did about
that, why, somebody just ought to take me out and shoot me! Do
YOU know what that man thought?"
"I'm not sure."
He frowned at her, and asked, "Well, what do you think about it?"
"I don't know," she said. "I don't believe I think anything at
all about anything to-day."
"Well, well," he returned; "I expect not; I expect not. You kind
of look to me as if you ought to be in bed yourself, young lady."
"Oh, no."
"I guess you mean 'Oh, yes'; and I won't keep you long, but
there's something we got to get fixed up, and I'd rather talk to
you than I would to your mother, because you're a smart girl and
always friendly; and I want to be sure I'm understood. Now,
listen."
"I will," Alice promised, smiling faintly.
"I never even hardly noticed your brother was still working for
me," he explained, earnestly. "I never thought anything about
it. My sons sort of tried to tease me about the way your
father--about his taking up this glue business, so to speak--and
one day Albert, Junior, asked me if I felt all right about your
brother's staying there after that, and I told him--well, I just
asked him to shut up. If the boy wanted to stay there, I didn't
consider it my business to send him away on account of any
feeling I had toward his father; not as long as he did his work
right--and the report showed he did. Well, as it happens, it
looks now as if he stayed because he HAD to; he couldn't quit
because he'd 'a' been found out if he did. Well, he'd been
covering up his shortage for a considerable time--and do you know
what your father practically charged me with about that?"
"No, Mr. Lamb."
In his resentment, the old gentleman's ruddy face became ruddier
and his husky voice huskier. "Thinks I kept the boy there
because I suspected him! Thinks I did it to get even with HIM!
Do I look to YOU like a man that'd do such a thing?"
"No," she said, gently. "I don't think you would."
"No!" he exclaimed. "Nor HE wouldn't think so if he was himself;
he's known me too long. But he must been sort of brooding over
this whole business-- I mean before Walter's trouble he must been
taking it to heart pretty hard for some time back. He thought I
didn't think much of him any more--and I expect he maybe wondered
some what I was going to DO--and there's nothing worse'n that
state of mind to make a man suspicious of all kinds of meanness.
Well, he practically stood up there and accused me to my face of
fixing things so't he couldn't ever raise the money to settle for
Walter and ask us not to prosecute. That's the state of mind
your father's brooding got him into, young lady--charging me with
a trick like that!"
"I'm sorry," she said. "I know you'd never----"
The old man slapped his sturdy knee, angrily. "Why, that dang
fool of a Virgil Adams!" he exclaimed. "He wouldn't even give me
a chance to talk; and he got me so mad I couldn't hardly talk,
anyway! He might 'a' known from the first I wasn't going to let
him walk in and beat me out of my own--that is, he might 'a'
known I wouldn't let him get ahead of me in a business
matter--not with my boys twitting me about it every few minutes!
But to talk to me the way he did this morning--well, he was out
of his head; that's all! Now, wait just a minute," he
interposed, as she seemed about to speak. "In the first place,
we aren't going to push this case against your brother. I
believe in the law, all right, and business men got to protect
themselves; but in a case like this, where restitution's made by
the family, why, I expect it's just as well sometimes to use a
little influence and let matters drop. Of course your brother'll
have to keep out o' this state; that's all."
"But--you said----" she faltered.
"Yes. What'd I say?"
"You said, 'where restitution's made by the family.' That's what
seemed to trouble papa so terribly, because--because restitution
couldn't----"
"Why, yes, it could. That's what I'm here to talk to you about."
"I don't see----"
"I'm going to TELL you, ain't I?" he said, gruffly. "Just hold
your horses a minute, please." He coughed, rose from his chair,
walked up and down the room, then halted before her. "It's like
this," he said. "After I brought your father home, this morning,
there was one of the things he told me, when he was going for me,
over yonder--it kind of stuck in my craw. It was something about
all this glue controversy not meaning anything to me in
particular, and meaning a whole heap to him and his family.
Well, he was wrong about that two ways. The first one was, it
did mean a good deal to me to have him go back on me after so
many years. I don't need to say any more about it, except just
to tell you it meant quite a little more to me than you'd think,
maybe. The other way he was wrong is, that how much a thing
means to one man and how little it means to another ain't the
right way to look at a business matter."
"I suppose it isn't, Mr. Lamb."
"No," he said. "It isn't. It's not the right way to look at
anything. Yes, and your father knows it as well as I do, when
he's in his right mind; and I expect that's one of the reasons he
got so mad at me--but anyhow, I couldn't help thinking about how
much all this thing HAD maybe meant to him;--as I say, it kind of
stuck in my craw. I want you to tell him something from me, and
I want you to go and tell him right off, if he's able and willing
to listen. You tell him I got kind of a notion he was pushed
into this thing by circumstances, and tell him I've lived long
enough to know that circumstances can beat the best of us--you
tell him I said 'the BEST of us.' Tell him I haven't got a bit of
feeling against him--not any more--and tell him I came here to
ask him not to have any against me."
"Yes, Mr. Lamb."
"Tell him I said----" The old man paused abruptly and Alice was
surprised, in a dull and tired way, when she saw that his lips
had begun to twitch and his eyelids to blink; but he recovered
himself almost at once, and continued: "I want him to remember,
'Forgive us our transgressions, as we forgive those that
transgress against us'; and if he and I been transgressing
against each other, why, tell him I think it's time we QUIT such
foolishness!"
He coughed again, smiled heartily upon her, and walked toward the
door; then turned back to her with an exclamation: "Well, if I
ain't an old fool!"
"What is it?" she asked.
"Why, I forgot what we were just talking about! Your father
wants to settle for Walter's deficit. Tell him we'll be glad to
accept it; but of course we don't expect him to clean the matter
up until he's able to talk business again."
Alice stared at him blankly enough for him to perceive that
further explanations were necessary. "It's like this," he said.
"You see, if your father decided to keep his works going over
yonder, I don't say but he might give us some little competition
for a time, 'specially as he's got the start on us and about
ready for the market. Then I was figuring we could use his
plant--it's small, but it'd be to our benefit to have the use of
it--and he's got a lease on that big lot; it may come in handy
for us if we want to expand some. Well, I'd prefer to make a
deal with him as quietly as possible---no good in every Tom, Dick
and Harry hearing about things like this--but I figured he could
sell out to me for a little something more'n enough to cover the
mortgage he put on this house, and Walter's deficit, too--THAT
don't amount to much in dollars and cents. The way I figure it,
I could offer him about ninety-three hundred dollars as a
total--or say ninety-three hundred and fifty-- and if he feels
like accepting, why, I'll send a confidential man up here with
the papers soon's your father's able to look 'em over. You tell
him, will you, and ask him if he sees his way to accepting that
figure?"
"Yes," Alice said; and now her own lips twitched, while her eyes
filled so that she saw but a blurred image of the old man, who
held out his hand in parting. "I'll tell him. Thank you."
He shook her hand hastily. "Well, let's just keep it kind of
quiet," he said, at the door. "No good in every Tom, Dick and
Harry knowing all what goes on in town! You telephone me when
your papa's ready to go over the papers--and call me up at my
house to-night, will you? Let me hear how he's feeling?"
"I will," she said, and through her grateful tears gave him a
smile almost radiant. "He'll be better, Mr. Lamb. We all
will." _
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