child in Pittsburgh when she could be brought up in Boston.
Boston, my good man, is intellectually--well, of course I do not wish
to appear prejudiced, but you will, I am sure, admit that Boston----"

Mr. Bob Cabot dropped helplessly into his chair, leaving the sentence
unfinished. There seemed to be no words in the English language
adequate to express what, in Mr. Bob Cabot's estimation, Boston
actually was.

Mr. Carleton started to laugh, but after glancing furtively at Mr. Bob
Cabot he changed his mind and coughed instead.

"We all grant Boston is without an intellectual peer," he answered with
a grave inclination of his head. "Even I, who was born in Indiana,
grant that, although out in my state we think we run you a close
second. Boston moreover has a background of which we in the West cannot
boast--history, you know, and all that sort of thing. It would be a
great privilege for little Miss Jean Cabot to receive a home and an
education in Boston. There are, however, many fine things in
Pittsburgh; it is not all soot, or panting factories."

"I suppose not. Jean's mother was a Pittsburgh girl, and certainly she
was a wonderful type of woman. Yet you cannot tell what result a Boston
environment might have had on such a nature as hers. She might have
been even nearer perfection. Yet after all she was quite fine enough
for human clay, Carleton, quite fine enough. And the little girl
promises to be like her--an uncommonly sweet, gentle child, and pretty,
too--very pretty. To send her to Pittsburgh--hang it all! Why must Tom
Curtis live in Pittsburgh?"

"Mr. Curtis, as you seem to have forgotten, Mr. Cabot, is the owner of
one of the largest plate glass factories in the country. He has built
up a fortune by his business and he is no more ready to hurl his life's
work to the winds and come to Boston to live than you are to toss aside
your own business and move to Pittsburgh. And by the way, speaking of
business, Mr. Cabot, if it does not seem an impertinent question, what
is _your_ business?"

"My business? Well, for a good many years my chief business seemed to
be getting over a bad knee I got when playing tackle on the Harvard
football eleven. We wiped up the ground with Yale, though, so it was
worth it. Of late I spend more or less time in seeing that Hannah does
not feed me too well and starve herself. Part of my business, too, is
to argue with disagreeable old lawyers like yourself, Carleton." Mr.
Bob Cabot ch