ng the
young man, but which had more of the appearance of a palavering
pretense. He bowed, ducked his head first on one side and then on the
other--and his colored handkerchief dangled at his coat-tails. He
found his tongue, which at first he seemed to have lost, and with his
bald head bobbing about, he appeared as an aged child, prattling at
random.

"Hah, hah, delighted to see you again, my dear young man. Didn't know
that I was coming when you were so kind as to take lunch with me
to-day; ladies came in the afternoon; Brooks couldn't come with me,
but he will be here later on. Hah, hah, they are taking excellent care
of us, you see. Ah, you sit here by me? Glad."

Mrs. Colton was exceedingly feeble, and her daughter appeared as a
very old-fashioned girl in a stylish habit--an old daguerreotype sort
of face, smooth, shiny and expressionless.

"We have all been talking about you," Colton said, as Henry sat down.
"Your mother and sister think you a very wonderful man, and my dear
friend Witherspoon"--

"Brother Colton is from Maryland," Witherspoon remarked.

Colton laughed and ducked his head. Ah, the listless wit of the rich!
It may be pointless, but how laughable is the millionaire's joke.

"But, my dear young man, we are determined to have you with us,"
Colton declared, when he had recovered himself. He nodded at
Witherspoon.

"We are going to try," the great merchant replied. "By the way, I told
Brooks that we'd have to press Bradley & Adams, of Atchison, Kansas.
They are altogether too slow--there's no excuse for it."

"None in the world; none whatever," Colton agreed. He more than
agreed, for there was alarm in his voice, and the alarm of an old
miser is pitiable. "Gracious alive, can they expect people to wait
always? Dear, what can the world be coming to when we are all to be
cheated out of our rights? We'll have the law on them."

Money professes great love for the law, and not without cause. The
rich man thinks that the law is his; and the poor man says, "It was
not made for me."

Among the ladies Henry was the subject of a subdued discussion, and
occasionally he heard Mrs. Colton say: "Such a comfort to you, and
after so many years of separation. So manly." And then Mrs. Brooks
would say: "Yes, indeed."

Henry noticed that Colton was not accompanied with his mutton-broth
economy. It was evident that the old man was frugal only to his own
advantage, and that his heartiness came at the expense o