t he
seemed to have been his accomplice when he used the force of his
personal character with them in Northwick's behalf. He was in a
ridiculous position, there was no doubt of that, and he was not going to
get out of it without much painful wear and tear of pride, of
self-respect.

After a long time he looked at the clock, and found it still early for
the return of his young people. He was impatient to see his son, and to
get the situation in the light of his mind, and see how it looked there.
He had already told him of the defalcation, and of what the Board had
decided to do with Northwick; but this was while he was still in the
glow of action, and he had spoken very hurriedly with Matt who came in
just as he was going out to dinner; it was before his cold fit came on.

He had reached that time of life when a man likes to lay his troubles
before his son; and in the view his son usually took of his troubles,
Hilary seemed to find another mood of his own. It was a fresher,
different self dealing with them; for the fellow was not only younger
and more vigorous; he was another temperament with the same interests,
and often the same principles. He had disappointed Hilary in some ways,
but he had gratified his pride in the very ways he had disappointed him.
The father had expected the son to go into business, and Matt did go
into the mills at Ponkwasset, where he was to be superintendent in the
natural course. But one day he came home and told his father that he had
begun to have his doubts of the existing relations of labor and capital;
and until he could see his way clearer he would rather give up his
chance with the company. It was a keen disappointment to Hilary; he made
no concealment of that; but he did not quarrel with his son about it. He
robustly tolerated Matt's queer notions, not only because he was a
father who blindly doted on his children and behaved as if everything
they did was right, no matter if it put him in the wrong, but because he
chose to respect the fellow's principles, if those were his principles.
He had his own principles, and Matt should have his if he liked. He bore
entirely well the purpose of going abroad that Matt expressed, and he
wished to give him much more money than the fellow would take, to carry
on those researches which he made in his travels. When he came back and
published his monograph on work and wages in Europe, Hilary paid the
expense, and took as unselfish an interest in the s