, even larger than I remembered, when I went through it
to-day," went on Roberts again. "It'll take considerable help to keep it
up and some one will have to be about constantly to direct. I have the
help in mind right now, competent too--I meet a lot of people in various
ways and I've had the thing on my mind; but the supervision--it's simply
out of the question with me at the present." He faced the other, looked
at him straight. "Would you and Mrs. Randall care to accept the place as
a home in return for taking the responsibility of up-keep from me?"

In the pause following Harry Randall's face went slowly red. Equally
directly he met the other's look.

"Pardon me, Mr. Roberts," he said, "but Mrs. Randall and myself are not
exactly objects of charity yet."

Darley Roberts' expression did not alter by so much as the twitching of a
muscle.

"That was unjustified, Mr. Randall," he said evenly, "and you know it.
Let me explain a bit further. I happen to have a house, but no home. By
the same chance you are able to produce the reverse. Just why should it
be an offence upon my part to suggest bringing the two together--for the
mutual benefit of us both?"

"Why? Because it's unequal, it's patronage; and though I work for twelve
hundred dollars a year, I'm still American born."

"Granted--the latter remark. I'm also American born, in the remotest
corner of the most God-forsaken county in--I won't name the State; I
might hurt some one's feelings." Roberts' big fingers were twitching in a
way they had when something he had decided to do met with opposition.
"Nevertheless I hope that fact doesn't make me wholly unreasonable. When
it comes to patronage, we're all patronized: you do a kindness for a
friend, without remuneration, and he accepts it; that's patronage. The
University gives you a position as professor, out of a dozen applicants
who could do equally well, and you accept gladly. That's favoritism,
another word for patronage. A client comes to me and pays a fee for doing
a certain labor, when my competitor across the street would perform it
equally capably, and for perhaps a smaller fee. That's patronage. You
patronize your tailor when you order a suit of clothes, the butcher when
you buy a beefsteak. It's the basis of life, elemental. The very air you
breathe is patronage. It costs you nothing, and you give nothing adequate
in return. To characterize patronage as un-American, stultifying, is
preposterous. Even if i