peless was clear enough, if another's disaster
would befriend him, and give him the opportunity to prove the
unselfishness of his constancy. He thought of the sum of money that
was his own, and that he might offer to lend, or practically give, if
the time came; and with his crude hopes and purposes formlessly
exulting in his heart, he kept on listening with an unchanged
countenance.

Walker could not rest till he had developed the whole situation, so far
as he knew it. "Look at the stock we've got on hand. There's going to
be an awful shrinkage on that, now! And when everybody is shutting
down, or running half-time, the works up at Lapham are going full chip,
just the same as ever. Well, it's his pride. I don't say but what
it's a good sort of pride, but he likes to make his brags that the
fire's never been out in the works since they started, and that no
man's work or wages has ever been cut down yet at Lapham, it don't
matter WHAT the times are. Of course," explained Walker, "I shouldn't
talk so to everybody; don't know as I should talk so to anybody but
you, Mr. Corey."

"Of course," assented Corey.

"Little off your feed to-day," said Walker, glancing at Corey's plate.

"I got up with a headache."

"Well, sir, if you're like me you'll carry it round all day, then. I
don't know a much meaner thing than a headache--unless it's earache, or
toothache, or some other kind of ache I'm pretty hard to suit, when it
comes to diseases. Notice how yellow the old man looked when he came
in this morning? I don't like to see a man of his build look
yellow--much." About the middle of the afternoon the dust-coloured face
of Rogers, now familiar to Lapham's clerks, showed itself among them.
"Has Colonel Lapham returned yet?" he asked, in his dry, wooden tones,
of Lapham's boy.

"Yes, he's in his office," said the boy; and as Rogers advanced, he
rose and added, "I don't know as you can see him to-day. His orders are
not to let anybody in."

"Oh, indeed!" said Rogers; "I think he will see ME!" and he pressed
forward.

"Well, I'll have to ask," returned the boy; and hastily preceding
Rogers, he put his head in at Lapham's door, and then withdrew it.
"Please to sit down," he said; "he'll see you pretty soon;" and, with
an air of some surprise, Rogers obeyed. His sere, dull-brown whiskers
and the moustache closing over both lips were incongruously and
illogically clerical in effect, and the effect was heightened for no