egarded a
recognition of the liberality of his former wife's husband--for that was
what it came to.

I returned his prospectus. "I'll look this up. How about that company in
Montana?" I continued.

"They've passed a dividend. I was counting on something from that
quarter."

"And how about the factory in Iowa?"

"That will bring me something next year."

"Well," I said, doubling back to the matter that had brought him in,
"I'll inquire about this and let you know."

In the course of a few days I called on McComas. Others were calling.
Others were always calling. If I wanted to see him I should have to
wait. I had expected to wait. I waited.

When I was finally admitted, he rose and came halfway through his
splendors of upholstery to give me an Olympian greeting.

"It's brass tacks," I said. "Three minutes will do."

"Four, if you like."

"Three. Frankly, very frankly, is this a thing"--here I used the large
page of ornamental letter-press as word-saver--"is this a thing for an
ordinary investor?"

"Ordinary investor"--that is what I called Raymond. Perhaps I flattered
him unduly.

"Why," responded McComas, with a grimace, "it's a right enough thing for
the right man--or men. Several of us expect to do pretty well out of
it."

"'Several'? How about the rank outsider?"

"Anybody that _you_ know sniffing?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Well--Prince."

"H'm." Johnny pondered; became magnanimous. "Well, it ain't for him.
Pull his nose away. I don't want his money."

He knew what he had taken. He may have had a prescience of what he was
yet to take. He could afford an interim of generosity.

V

A year or so went on, and we met the McComases at a horse-show. Once
more it had become distinguished to have horses, and to exhibit them--in
the right place. Althea was with her parents; so was the survivor of the
stalwart twins.

Johnny had taken the blow hard. That a son of his, one so strong and
robust, a youth on whom so much time and thought and care and money had
been lavished to fit him for the world, should go down and go out (and
in such a sudden, trivial fashion)--oh, it was more than he felt he
could endure. But he was built on a broad plan; his nature, when the
test came, opened a wide door to the assimilation of experiences and
offered a wide margin for adjustment to their jars. His other son, the
full equal of the lost one, still survived and was present to-day; and
Johnny, grandly reconciled, was h