em consulted i don t know i swear sometimes i feel like taking ken aside and putting him over the and saying to him young me lad are you going to marry young or are you going to talk her to death here you are getting on toward thirty and you re only making twenty or twenty five a week when you going to develop a sense of responsibility and get a raise if there s anything that george f or i can do to help you call on us but show a little speed anyway well at that it might not be so bad if you or i talked to him except he might not understand he s one of these high brows he can t come down to cases and lay his cards on the table and talk straight out from the shoulder like you or i can that s right he s like all these that s so like all of em that s a fact they sighed and were silent and thoughtful and happy the conductor came in he had once called at s office to ask about houses h are you mr i we going to have you with us to this your boy yes this is my son ted well now what do you know about that here i been thinking you were a yourself not a day over forty hardly and you with this great big fellow forty why brother i ll never see forty five again is that a fact wouldn t hardly a thought it yes sir it s a bad give away for the old man when he has to travel with a young whale like ted here you re right it is to ted i suppose you re in college now proudly no not till next fall i m just kind of giving the rent the once over now as the conductor went on his way huge watch chain against his blue chest and ted gravely considered they arrived at late at night they lay in the morning rejoicing pretty nice not to have to get up and get down to breakfast they were staying at the modest hotel because business men always stayed at the but they had dinner in the and crystal room of the hotel ordered blue point with a tremendous with a tremendous of french potatoes two pots of coffee apple pie with ice cream for both of them and for ted an extra piece of pie hot stuff some feed young ted admired you stick around with me old man and show you a good time they went to a musical comedy and each other at the matrimonial jokes and the jokes they the arm in arm between acts and in the glee of his first release from the shame which fathers and sons ted chuckled did you ever hear the one about the three and the judge when ted had returned to was lonely as he was trying to make alliance between and certain interests which wanted the race track plot most of his time was taken up in waiting for calls sitting on the edge of his bed holding the asking wearily mr not in yet didn he leave any message for me all right i ll hold the wire staring at a stain on the wall reflecting that it resembled a shoe and being bored by this twentieth discovery that it resembled a shoe lighting a then bound to the with no in reach wondering what to do with this burning menace and anxiously trying to toss it into the at last on the no message eh all right i ll call up again one afternoon he wandered through snow streets of which he had never heard streets of small and houses and cottages it came to him that he had nothing to do that there was nothing he wanted to do he was lonely in the evening when he dined by himself at the hotel he sat in the afterward in a chair with the arms lighting a cigar and looking for some one who would come and play with him and save him from thinking in the chair next to him showing the arms of was a half familiar man n large red faced man with pop eyes and a deficient yellow he seemed kind and insignificant and as lonely as himself he wore a suit and a reluctant orange tie it came to with a crash the melancholy stranger was sir instinctively rose how re you sir member we met in at s s my name � real estate oh how d you do sir shook hands embarrassed standing wondering how he could retreat well i suppose you been having a great trip since we saw you in quite british and and all over the place he said doubtfully looking at how did you find business conditions in british or i suppose maybe you didn t look into em scenery and sport and so on scenery oh capital but business conditions � you know mr they re having almost as much as we are sir was speaking warmly now so business conditions not so good eh no business conditions weren t at all what i d hoped to find them not good eh no not � not really good that s a shame well � i suppose you re waiting for somebody to take you out to some big sir oh no to tell you the truth i was wondering what the deuce i could do this evening don t know a soul in i wonder if you happen to know whether there s a good in this city good why say they re running grand opera right now i guess maybe you d like that eh eh went to the opera once in london garden sort of thing shocking no i was wondering if there was a 