't goin' to hurt you if you haven't got her to worry
you, and you can get shut o' this nasty whiskey-guzzlin'; it ain't
fastened on you yet. Don't say--"

"It's no use on earth," Roscoe mumbled. "No use on earth."

"Look here! If you want another month's vacation--"

"I know Gurney told you, so what's the use talking about 'vacations'?"

"Gurney!" Sheridan vociferated the name savagely. "It's Gurney, Gurney,
Gurney! Always Gurney! I don't know what the world's comin' to with
everybody runnin' around squealin', 'The doctor says this,' and, 'The
doctor says that'! It makes me sick! How's this country expect to get
its Work done if Gurney and all the other old nanny-goats keep up this
blattin'--'Oh, oh! Don't lift that stick o' wood; you'll ruin your
NERVES!' So he says you got 'nervous exhaustion induced by overwork and
emotional strain.' They always got to stick the Work in if they see a
chance! I reckon you did have the 'emotional strain,' and that's all's
the matter with you. You'll be over it soon's this woman's gone, and
Work's the very thing to make you quit frettin' about her."

"Did Gurney tell you I was fit to work?"

"Shut up!" Sheridan bellowed. "I'm so sick o' that man's name I feel
like shootin' anybody that says it to me!" He fumed and chafed, swearing
indistinctly, then came and stood before his son. "Look here; do you
think you're doin' the square thing by me? Do you? How much you worth?"

"I've got between seven and eight thousand a year clear, of my own,
outside the salary. That much is mine whether I work or not."

"It is? You could'a pulled it out without me, I suppose you think, at
your age?"

"No. But it's mine, and it's enough."

"My Lord! It's about what a Congressman gets, and you want to quit
there! I suppose you think you'll get the rest when I kick the bucket,
and all you have to do is lay back and wait! You let me tell you right
here, you'll never see one cent of it. You go out o' business now, and
what would you know about handlin' it five or ten or twenty years from
now? Because I intend to STAY here a little while yet, my boy! They'd
either get it away from you or you'd sell for a nickel and let it be
split up and--" He whirled about, marched to the other end of the room,
and stood silent a moment. Then he said, solemnly: "Listen. If you go
out now, you leave me in the lurch, with nothin' on God's green earth
to depend on but your brother--and you know what he is. I've depended on