Richard's eyes were straight ahead, as the eyes of a man must be whose
powerful car is running at high speed along a none too smoothly surfaced
portion of state road. Therefore the glances of the two young men could
not meet. But Lorimer's eyes could silently scan the well-cut profile
presented to his view against the green of the fields beyond.

"Never observed," said he, with a peculiar inflection, "just
how--rock-like--that chin of yours is, Rich. Reminds me of your
grandfather's, for fair."

"Glad to hear it."

"You know," pursued Lorimer presently, "you gave me your promise, once,
that you'd be with me on this cruise, whenever it came off. That's where
the chin ought to come in. Man of your word, you know, and all that."

"I'm mighty sorry, my dear fellow. Let's not talk about it."

And clearly he was sorry. It had been a pleasant plan, and he had not
forgotten the circumstances of the laughing yet serious pledge the two
had given each other one evening less than two years ago.

They kept on their way with a change of conversation, and at the rate of
speed which Richard maintained were running into Eastman before they
were half done with asking each other questions concerning the months
during which they had seldom met.

"This the busy mart?" queried Lorimer, as the car came to a standstill
before the corner store. "Well, beside Kendrick & Company's massive
edifices of stone and marble--"

"Luckily, it's not beside them," retorted Richard, maintaining his good
humour. "Will you come in?"

"Thanks, I will. That's what I came for. Curiosity leads me to want to
view you behind the--No, no, of course it's behind the office glass
partition that I'll view you, my boy. I want to hear Rich Kendrick
talking business--with a big B."

"I'll talk business to you, if you don't let up," declared his friend.
"You've got to be cured of the idea that this is some kind of a joke,
Lorry. Will you be kind enough to take me seriously?"

"Find--that--impossible," drawled Lorimer, under his breath, as he
followed Richard into the store.

But once there, of course, his manner changed to the most courteous of
which he was master. He was taken to the office and there shook hands
with Hugh Benson with cordiality, having known him at college as a man
who commanded respect for high scholarship and modest but assured
manners, though of a quite different class of comradeship from his own.
He talked pleasantly with Alfred Carson, an