glasses, "But I don't see how you can afford
'em, I can't."

"Well, sir," said the son, who dropped the "sir" into his speech with
his father, now and then, in an old-fashioned way that was rather
charming, "you see, I have an indulgent parent."

"Smoke?" suggested the father, pushing toward his son a box of
cigarettes, from which he had taken one.

"No, thank you," said the son. "I've dropped that."

"Ah, is that so?" The father began to feel about on the table for
matches, in the purblind fashion of elderly men. His son rose, lighted
one, and handed it to him. "Well,--oh, thank you, Tom!--I believe some
statisticians prove that if you will give up smoking you can dress very
well on the money your tobacco costs, even if you haven't got an
indulgent parent. But I'm too old to try. Though, I confess, I should
rather like the clothes. Whom did you find at the club?"

"There were a lot of fellows there," said young Corey, watching the
accomplished fumigation of his father in an absent way.

"It's astonishing what a hardy breed the young club-men are," observed
his father. "All summer through, in weather that sends the sturdiest
female flying to the sea-shore, you find the clubs filled with young
men, who don't seem to mind the heat in the least."

"Boston isn't a bad place, at the worst, in summer," said the son,
declining to take up the matter in its ironical shape.

"I dare say it isn't, compared with Texas," returned the father,
smoking tranquilly on. "But I don't suppose you find many of your
friends in town outside of the club."

"No; you're requested to ring at the rear door, all the way down Beacon
Street and up Commonwealth Avenue. It's rather a blank reception for
the returning prodigal."

"Ah, the prodigal must take his chance if he comes back out of season.
But I'm glad to have you back, Tom, even as it is, and I hope you're
not going to hurry away. You must give your energies a rest."

"I'm sure you never had to reproach me with abnormal activity,"
suggested the son, taking his father's jokes in good part.

"No, I don't know that I have," admitted the elder. "You've always
shown a fair degree of moderation, after all. What do you think of
taking up next? I mean after you have embraced your mother and sisters
at Mount Desert. Real estate? It seems to me that it is about time for
you to open out as a real-estate broker. Or did you ever think of
matrimony?"

"Well, not just in that w