interview,
he called up the warerooms, but Lester was not there. He then
telephoned to the house, and tactfully made an appointment. Lester was
still indisposed, but he preferred to come down to the office, and he
did. He met Robert in his cheerful, nonchalant way, and together they
talked business for a time. Then followed a pregnant silence.

"Well, I suppose you know what brought me up here," began Robert
tentatively.

"I think I could make a guess at it," Lester replied.

"They were all very much worried over the fact that you were
sick--mother particularly. You're not in any danger of having a
relapse, are you?"

"I think not."

"Louise said there was some sort of a peculiar menage
she ran into up here. You're not married, are you?"

"No."

"The young woman Louise saw is just--" Robert waved his hand
expressively.

Lester nodded.

"I don't want to be inquisitive, Lester. I didn't come up for that.
I'm simply here because the family felt that I ought to come. Mother
was so very much distressed that I couldn't do less than see you for
her sake"--he paused, and Lester, touched by the fairness and
respect of his attitude, felt that mere courtesy at least made some
explanation due.

"I don't know that anything I can say will help matters much," he
replied thoughtfully. "There's really nothing to be said. I have the
woman and the family has its objections. The chief difficulty about
the thing seems to be the bad luck in being found out."

He stopped, and Robert turned over the substance of this worldly
reasoning in his mind. Lester was very calm about it. He seemed, as
usual, to be most convincingly sane.

"You're not contemplating marrying her, are you?" queried Robert
hesitatingly.

"I hadn't come to that," answered Lester coolly.

They looked at each other quietly for a moment, and then Robert
turned his glance to the distant scene of the city.

"It's useless to ask whether you are seriously in love with her, I
suppose," ventured Robert.

"I don't know whether I'd be able to discuss that divine afflatus
with you or not," returned Lester, with a touch of grim humor. "I have
never experienced the sensation myself. All I know is that the lady is
very pleasing to me."

"Well, it's all a question of your own well-being and the family's,
Lester," went on Robert, after another pause. "Morality doesn't seem
to figure in it anyway--at least you and I can't discuss that
together. Your feelings on that