e,
moved by the oblique, harassing intimations he had been forced to hear
from the doctor as to the possibility of his not understanding all that
was in his daughter's mind, was oppressed by that most nightmarish of
emotions for a man of clear-cut intellectual interests--an apprehension,
like an imperceptible, clinging cobweb, not to be brushed away. He
wished heartily that the next year were over and Lydia "safely married."
Daughters were so much more of a responsibility than sons. They forced
on one the reality of a world of intangible conditions which one could,
somehow, comfortably ignore with sons. And yet, how about Harry? Perhaps
if some one had not ignored with him--

"I should have been back ten days ago," Paul drew to the end of his
story, "but I simply had to wait to oversee those tests myself. Since
I've adopted that rule of personally checking the inspector's work,
we've been able to report forty per cent. fewer complaints of newly
installed dynamos to the general office. And you see in this case, from
the accident, what might have happened."

"By the Lord!" cried the lawyer, moved in spite of his preoccupations by
the story of danger the other had been relating, "I should think it
would turn your hair white every time a dynamo's installed. How did you
feel when the fly-wheel broke?"

"The fly-wheel isn't on the dynamo, of course," corrected Paul, "so I
don't feel responsible for it in a business way, and that's everything.
As for being frightened, why, it's all over so quickly. You don't have
time to take in what's happening. You're there or you're not. And if you
are, the best thing is to get busy with repairs," he added, with a
simple, manly depreciation of his courage. "You mustn't think it often
happens, you know; it's supposed never to."

He spoke of the personal side of the matter with a dry brevity which
contrasted effectively with the unconscious eloquence with which he had
previously brought before their eyes the tense excitement in the new
power-house when the wheels first stir to life in incredibly rapid
revolutions and the mysterious modern genii begins to rush through the
wires. At no time did Lydia's suitor show to better advantage than in
speaking of his profession. The alertness of his face and the prompt
decision of his speech suited the subject. His mouth fell into lines of
grimly fixed purpose which expressed even more than his words when he
spoke of the rivalry in endurance, patienc