and her pathetic negro eyes following the old gentleman as he moved
wistfully about the room.

Father and son shook hands in silence, and turned to the table. There
were three chairs in their accustomed places. They hesitated a
half-second, looking at the third great arm-chair, as though they waited
for the mistress of the house to take her place. Then they sat down. It
was six years before any one took that third chair, but every morning
Jacob Dolph the elder made that little pause before he put himself at
the foot of the table.

On this first morning there was very little said and very little eaten.
But when they had made an end of sitting at the table old Jacob Dolph
said, with something almost like testiness in his husky voice:

"Jacob, I want to sell the house."

"Father!"

[Illustration]

"The old house, I mean; I shall never go back there."

His son looked at him with a further inquiry. He felt a sudden new
apprehension. The father sat back in his easy-chair, drumming on the
arms with nervous fingers.

"I shall never go back there," he said again.

"Of course you know best, sir," said young Jacob, gently; "but would it
be well to be precipitate? It is possible that you may feel differently
some time----"

"There is no 'some time' for me!" broke in the old man, gripping the
chair-arms, fiercely; "my time's done--done, sir!"

Then his voice broke and became plaintively kind.

"There, there! Forgive me, Jacob, boy. But it's true, my boy, true. The
world's done, for me; but there's a world ahead for you, my son, thank
God! I'll be patient--I'll be patient. God has been good to me, and I
haven't many years to wait, in the course of nature."

He looked vacantly out of the window, trying to see the unforeseen with
his mental sight.

"While I'm here, Jacob, let the old man have his way. It's a whimsey; I
doubt 'tis hardly rational. But I have no heart to go home. Let me learn
to live my life here. 'Twill be easier."

"But do you think it necessary to sell, sir? Could you not hold the
house? Are you certain that you would like to have a stranger living
there?"

"I care not a pin who lives within those four walls now, sir!" cried the
elder, with a momentary return of his vehemence. "It's no house to me
now. Sell it, sir, sell it!--if there's any one will give money for it
at a time like this. Bring every stick of furniture and every stitch of
carpet up here; and let me have my way, Jacob--it won't be