their
accustomed relation and routine, meeting in the morning and at dinner;
but as John picked up the threads of his acquaintance he usually went
out after dinner, and even when he did not his father went early to his
own apartment.

From John's childhood he had been much of the time away from home, and
there had never, partly from that circumstance and partly from the older
man's natural and habitual reserve, been very much intimacy between
them. The father did not give his own confidence, and, while always kind
and sympathetic when appealed to, did not ask his son's; and, loving his
father well and loyally, and trusting him implicitly, it did not occur
to John to feel that there was anything wanting in the relation. It was
as it had always been. He was accustomed to accept what his father did
or said without question, and, as is very often the case, had always
regarded him as an old man. He had never felt that they could be in the
same equation. In truth, save for their mutual affection, they had
little in common; and if, as may have been the case, his father had any
cravings for a closer and more intimate relation, he made no sign,
acquiescing in his son's actions as the son did in his, without question
or suggestion. They did not know each other, and such cases are not
rare, more is the pity.

But as time went on even John's unwatchful eye could not fail to notice
that all was not well with his father. Haggard lines were multiplying in
the quiet face, and the silence at the dinner table was often unbroken
except by John's unfruitful efforts to keep some sort of a conversation
in motion. More and more frequently it occurred that his father would
retire to his own room immediately after dinner was over, and the food
on his plate would be almost untouched, while he took more wine than had
ever been his habit. John, retiring late, would often hear him stirring
uneasily in his room, and it would be plain in the morning that he had
spent a wakeful, if not a sleepless, night. Once or twice on such a
morning John had suggested to his father that he should not go down to
the office, and the suggestion had been met with so irritable a negative
as to excite his wonder.

* * * * *

It was a day in the latter part of March. The winter had been unusually
severe, and lingered into spring with a heart-sickening tenacity,
occasional hints of clemency and promise being followed by recurrences
whic