course he'd love to see you and he's quite able to, if you care to come
up."

She ran up the stairs ahead of him, and had time to snatch the crocheted
wrap from her father's shoulders. Swathed as usual, he was sitting
beside a table, reading the evening paper; but when his employer
appeared in the doorway he half rose as if to come forward in greeting.

"Sit still!" the old gentleman shouted. "What do you mean? Don't you
know you're weak as a cat? D'you think a man can be sick as long as you
have and NOT be weak as a cat? What you trying to do the polite with ME
for?"

Adams gratefully protracted the handshake that accompanied these
inquiries. "This is certainly mighty fine of you, Mr. Lamb," he said.
"I guess Alice has told you how much our whole family appreciate your
coming here so regularly to see how this old bag o' bones was getting
along. Haven't you, Alice?"

"Yes, papa," she said; and turned to go out, but Lamb checked her.

"Stay right here, Miss Alice; I'm not even going to sit down. I know
how it upsets sick folks when people outside the family come in for the
first time."

"You don't upset me," Adams said. "I'll feel a lot better for getting a
glimpse of you, Mr. Lamb."

The visitor's laugh was husky, but hearty and re-assuring, like his
voice in speaking. "That's the way all my boys blarney me, Miss Alice,"
he said. "They think I'll make the work lighter on 'em if they can
get me kind of flattered up. You just tell your daddy it's no use; he
doesn't get on MY soft side, pretending he likes to see me even when
he's sick."

"Oh, I'm not so sick any more," Adams said. "I expect to be back in my
place ten days from now at the longest."

"Well, now, don't hurry it, Virgil; don't hurry it. You take your time;
take your time."

This brought to Adams's lips a feeble smile not lacking in a kind of
vanity, as feeble. "Why?" he asked. "I suppose you think my department
runs itself down there, do you?"

His employer's response was another husky laugh. "Well, well, well!" he
cried, and patted Adams's shoulder with a strong pink hand. "Listen to
this young feller, Miss Alice, will you! He thinks we can't get along
without him a minute! Yes, sir, this daddy of yours believes the whole
works 'll just take and run down if he isn't there to keep 'em wound up.
I always suspected he thought a good deal of himself, and now I know he
does!"

Adams looked troubled. "Well, I don't like to feel that my salary's
go