to the telephone, had time to find that his heart was
beating a tattoo against his ribs, that his breath was short and
fluttery, and that stage fright had suddenly crept over him and claimed
him for its own; so it was with no great patience or understanding that
he heard Jack tell him in great glee about some tests which Princeman
had had made in his own paper mills with the marsh pulp, and how
Princeman was sorry he had not taken more stock, and could not the
treasury stock be opened for further subscription? "Tell him no," said
Sam shortly, and hung up the receiver; then he repented of his
bluntness and spent five precious minutes in recalling his brother and
apologizing for his bruskness, explaining that Princeman was probably
trying to plan another attempt to pool the stock.

In the meantime Theophilus Stevens had stood surveying his daughter in
contrition.

"I'm afraid I came in at a most inopportune moment," he said by way of
apology.

"Yes, I'm afraid you did," she admitted with a smile. "However, I
don't think Sam will forget what he wanted to say," and suddenly she
reached up and put her arms around her father's neck and drew his face
down and kissed him rapturously.

"I'm glad to see you feel the way you do about it," said Mr. Stevens
delightedly, petting her gently upon the shoulder with one hand and
with the other smoothing back the hair from her forehead. She was the
dearest to him of all his children, although he never confessed it,
even to himself, and just now they were very, very close together
indeed. "I'm glad to hear you call him Sam, too. He's a fine young
man and he is bound to be a howling success in everything he
undertakes." He smiled reminiscently. "I rather thought there was
something between you two," he went on, still patting her shoulder,
"and when Dan Westlake told me that his girl thought a great deal of
Sam and that he was going to buy enough stock in Sam's company to give
Sam control, I turned right around and bought just as much stock as
Westlake had, although just before the meeting I had refused to invest
as much money as Sam wanted me to. Moreover, Westlake and myself,
between us, stopped the move to pool the outside stock, just yet. He's
a smart young man, that boy," he continued admiringly. "I didn't see,
until I went into that meeting, why he was so crazy to have me buy
enough stock to gain control-- What's the matter?"

He stopped in perplexity, for his daughte