t him in any way. He saw
his brother just as he was, for he had the larger philosophic and
interpretative insight; but Robert could not place Lester exactly. He
could not fathom just what had happened to him in these years. Lester
was stouter, not gray, for some reason, but sandy and ruddy, looking
like a man who was fairly well satisfied to take life as he found it.
Lester looked at his brother with a keen, steady eye. The latter
shifted a little, for he was restless. He could see that there was no
loss of that mental force and courage which had always been
predominant characteristics in Lester's make-up.

"I thought I'd like to see you again, Lester," Robert remarked,
after they had clasped hands in the customary grip. "It's been a long
time now--nearly eight years, hasn't it?"

"About that," replied Lester. "How are things with you?"

"Oh, about the same. You've been fairly well, I see."

"Never sick," said Lester. "A little cold now and then. I don't
often go to bed with anything. How's your wife?"

"Oh, Margaret's fine."

"And the children?"

"We don't see much of Ralph and Berenice since they married, but
the others are around more or less. I suppose your wife is all right,"
he said hesitatingly. It was difficult ground for Robert.

Lester eyed him without a change of expression.

"Yes," he replied. "She enjoys pretty fair health. She's quite well
at present."

They drifted mentally for a few moments, while Lester inquired
after the business, and Amy, Louise, and Imogene. He admitted frankly
that he neither saw nor heard from them nowadays. Robert told him what
he could.

"The thing that I was thinking of in connection with you, Lester,"
said Robert finally, "is this matter of the Western Crucible Steel
Company. You haven't been sitting there as a director in person I
notice, but your attorney, Watson, has been acting for you. Clever
man, that. The management isn't right--we all know that. We need
a practical steel man at the head of it, if the thing is ever going to
pay properly. I have voted my stock with yours right along because the
propositions made by Watson have been right. He agrees with me that
things ought to be changed. Now I have a chance to buy seventy shares
held by Rossiter's widow. That with yours and mine would give us
control of the company. I would like to have you take them, though it
doesn't make a bit of difference so long as it's in the family. You
can put any one you please i