of it yet--not any signs that stuck out enough to bang
somebody on the head and make 'em sit up and take notice--well, I want
to say, right here and now--and you better listen, because I want to say
just what I DO say. I say--"

He meandered to a full stop. His mouth hung open, and his mind was a
hopeless blank.

Bibbs looked up patiently--an old, old look. "Yes, father; I'm
listening."

"That's all," said Sheridan, frowning heavily. "That's all I came to
say, and you better see't you remember it!"

He shook his head warningly, and went out, closing the door behind him
with a crash. However, no sound of footsteps indicated his departure.
He stopped just outside the door, and stood there a minute or more.
Then abruptly he turned the knob and exhibited to his son a forehead
liberally covered with perspiration.

"Look here," he said, crossly. "That girl over yonder wrote Jim a
letter--"

"I know," said Bibbs. "She told me."

"Well, I thought you needn't feel so much upset about it--" The door
closed on his voice as he withdrew, but the conclusion of the sentence
was nevertheless audible--"if you knew she wouldn't have Jim, either."

And he stamped his way down-stairs to tell his wife to quit her frettin'
and not bother him with any more fool's errands. She was about to
inquire what Bibbs "said," but after a second thought she decided not
to speak at all. She merely murmured a wordless assent, and verbal
communication was given over between them for the rest of that
afternoon.

Bibbs and his father were gone when Mrs. Sheridan woke, the next
morning, and she had a dreary day. She missed Edith woefully, and she
worried about what might be taking place in the Sheridan Building. She
felt that everything depended on how Bibbs "took hold," and upon her
husband's return in the evening she seized upon the first opportunity
to ask him how things had gone. He was non-committal. What could anybody
tell by the first day? He'd seen plenty go at things well enough right
at the start and then blow up. Pretty near anybody could show up fair
the first day or so. There was a big job ahead. This material, such as
it was--Bibbs, in fact--had to be broken in to handling the work Roscoe
had done; and then, at least as an overseer, he must take Jim's position
in the Realty Company as well. He told her to ask him again in a month.

But during the course of dinner she gathered from some disjointed
remarks of his that he and Bibbs had