lt just so about it. Here is some of our stuff," he said, pointing
out the various packages in his office, including the Persis Brand.

"Ah, that's very nice, very nice indeed," said his visitor. "That
colour through the jar--very rich--delicious. Is Persis Brand a name?"

Lapham blushed.

"Well, Persis is. I don't know as you saw an interview that fellow
published in the Events a while back?"

"What is the Events?"

"Well, it's that new paper Witherby's started."

"No," said Bromfield Corey, "I haven't seen it. I read The Daily," he
explained; by which he meant The Daily Advertiser, the only daily there
is in the old-fashioned Bostonian sense.

"He put a lot of stuff in my mouth that I never said," resumed Lapham;
"but that's neither here nor there, so long as you haven't seen it.
Here's the department your son's in," and he showed him the foreign
labels. Then he took him out into the warehouse to see the large
packages. At the head of the stairs, where his guest stopped to nod to
his son and say "Good-bye, Tom," Lapham insisted upon going down to the
lower door with him "Well, call again," he said in hospitable
dismissal. "I shall always be glad to see you. There ain't a great
deal doing at this season." Bromfield Corey thanked him, and let his
hand remain perforce in Lapham's lingering grasp. "If you ever like to
ride after a good horse----" the Colonel began.

"Oh, no, no, no; thank you! The better the horse, the more I should be
scared. Tom has told me of your driving!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the Colonel. "Well! every one to his taste.
Well, good morning, sir!" and he suffered him to go.

"Who is the old man blowing to this morning?" asked Walker, the
book-keeper, making an errand to Corey's desk.

"My father."

"Oh! That your father? I thought he must be one of your Italian
correspondents that you'd been showing round, or Spanish."

In fact, as Bromfield Corey found his way at his leisurely pace up
through the streets on which the prosperity of his native city was
founded, hardly any figure could have looked more alien to its life.
He glanced up and down the facades and through the crooked vistas like
a stranger, and the swarthy fruiterer of whom he bought an apple,
apparently for the pleasure of holding it in his hand, was not
surprised that the purchase should be transacted in his own tongue.

Lapham walked back through the outer office to his own room without
looking at Corey, and d