, he was out
of his head; that's all! Now, wait just a minute," he interposed, as she
seemed about to speak. "In the first place, we aren't going to push this
case against your brother. I believe in the law, all right, and
business men got to protect themselves; but in a case like this, where
restitution's made by the family, why, I expect it's just as well
sometimes to use a little influence and let matters drop. Of course your
brother'll have to keep out o' this state; that's all."

"But--you said----" she faltered.

"Yes. What'd I say?"

"You said, 'where restitution's made by the family.' That's what seemed
to trouble papa so terribly, because--because restitution couldn't----"

"Why, yes, it could. That's what I'm here to talk to you about."

"I don't see----"

"I'm going to TELL you, ain't I?" he said, gruffly. "Just hold your
horses a minute, please." He coughed, rose from his chair, walked up and
down the room, then halted before her. "It's like this," he said. "After
I brought your father home, this morning, there was one of the things he
told me, when he was going for me, over yonder--it kind of stuck in
my craw. It was something about all this glue controversy not meaning
anything to me in particular, and meaning a whole heap to him and his
family. Well, he was wrong about that two ways. The first one was,
it did mean a good deal to me to have him go back on me after so many
years. I don't need to say any more about it, except just to tell you it
meant quite a little more to me than you'd think, maybe. The other way
he was wrong is, that how much a thing means to one man and how little
it means to another ain't the right way to look at a business matter."

"I suppose it isn't, Mr. Lamb."

"No," he said. "It isn't. It's not the right way to look at anything.
Yes, and your father knows it as well as I do, when he's in his right
mind; and I expect that's one of the reasons he got so mad at me--but
anyhow, I couldn't help thinking about how much all this thing HAD maybe
meant to him;--as I say, it kind of stuck in my craw. I want you to tell
him something from me, and I want you to go and tell him right off, if
he's able and willing to listen. You tell him I got kind of a notion
he was pushed into this thing by circumstances, and tell him I've lived
long enough to know that circumstances can beat the best of us--you tell
him I said 'the BEST of us.' Tell him I haven't got a bit of feeling
against him--no