lly. "That's nice of you, Mr. Russell. It helps. The
break between the Adamses and the Lambs is a pretty bothersome thing.
It's been coming on a long time." She sighed deeply, and the sigh
was half genuine; this half being for her father, but the other half
probably belonged to her instinctive rendering of Juliet Capulet,
daughter to a warring house. "I hate it all so!" she added.

"Of course you must."

"I suppose most quarrels between families are on account of business,"
she said. "That's why they're so sordid. Certainly the Lambs seem a
sordid lot to me, though of course I'm biased." And with that she began
to sketch a history of the commercial antagonism that had risen between
the Adamses and the Lambs.

The sketching was spontaneous and dramatic. Mathematics had no part in
it; nor was there accurate definition of Mr. Adams's relation to the
institution of Lamb and Company. The point was clouded, in fact; though
that might easily be set down to the general haziness of young ladies
confronted with the mysteries of trade or commerce. Mr. Adams either had
been a vague sort of junior member of the firm, it appeared, or else
he should have been made some such thing; at all events, he was an old
mainstay of the business; and he, as much as any Lamb, had helped to
build up the prosperity of the company. But at last, tired of providing
so much intelligence and energy for which other people took profit
greater than his own, he had decided to leave the company and found a
business entirely for himself. The Lambs were going to be enraged when
they learned what was afoot.

Such was the impression, a little misted, wrought by Alice's quick
narrative. But there was dolorous fact behind it: Adams had succumbed.

His wife, grave and nervous, rather than triumphant, in success, had
told their daughter that the great J. A. would be furious and possibly
vindictive. Adams was afraid of him, she said.

"But what for, mama?" Alice asked, since this seemed a turn of affairs
out of reason. "What in the world has Mr. Lamb to do with papa's leaving
the company to set up for himself? What right has he to be angry about
it? If he's such a friend as he claims to be, I should think he'd be
glad--that is, if the glue factory turns out well. What will he be angry
for?"

Mrs. Adams gave Alice an uneasy glance, hesitated, and then explained
that a resignation from Lamb's had always been looked upon, especially
by "that old man," as treacher