at came straight and unhesitating, "I know,
boy, you are my son and you must go, for I cannot," ever since that
night, which seemed now to belong to another age, these two had faced
each other as men. Now they were talking about the young man's life
work.

"Frankly, I don't like it, Dad," said the son.

"Easy to see that, Jack."

"I'm really sorry. I'm afraid anyone can see it. But somehow I can't put
much pep into it."

"Why?" asked the father, with curt abruptness.

"Why? Well, I hardly know. Somehow it hardly seems worth while. It is
not the grind of the office, though that is considerable. I could stick
that, but, after all, what's the use?"

"What would you rather do, Jack?" enquired his father patiently, as if
talking to a child. "You tried for the medical profession, you know,
and--"

"I know, I know, you are quite right about it. You may think it pure
laziness. Maybe it is, but I hardly think so. Perhaps I went back to
lectures too soon after the war. I was hardly fit, I guess, and the
whole thing, the inside life, the infernal grind of lectures, the
idiotic serious mummery of the youngsters, those blessed kids who should
have been spanked by their mothers--the whole thing sickened me in three
months. If I had waited perhaps I might have done better at the thing. I
don't know--hard to tell." The boy paused, looking into the fire.

"It was my fault, boy," said the father hastily. "I ought to have
figured the thing out differently. But, you see, I had no knowledge of
what you had gone through and of its effect upon you. I know better now.
I thought that the harder you went into the work the better it would be
for you. I made a mistake."

"Well, you couldn't tell, Dad. How could you? But everything was so
different when I came back. Mere kids were carrying on where we had
been, and doing it well, too, by Jove, and we didn't seem to be needed."

"Needed, boy?" The father's voice was thick.

"Yes, but I didn't see that then. Selfish, I fear. Then, you know, home
was not the same--"

The older man choked back a groan and leaned hard against the mantel.

"I know, Dad, I can see now I was selfish--"

"Selfish? Don't say that, my lad. Selfish? After all you had gone
through? No, I shall never apply that word to you, but you--you don't
seem to realise--" The father hesitated a few moments, then, as if
taking a plunge:

"You don't realise just how big a thing--how big an investment there is
in that busi