Before Stacy could reply, a waiting visitor was announced for the second time, and Barker, with another hand-shake and a reassuring smile to his old partner, passed into the hall, as if the onus of any infelicity in the interview was upon himself alone. But Stacy did not seem to be in a particularly accessible mood to the new caller, who in his turn appeared to be slightly irritated by having been kept waiting over some irksome business. You dont seem to follow me, he said to Stacy after reciting his business perplexity. Cant you suggest something?
Well, why dont you get hold of one of your board of directors? said Stacy abstractedly. Theres Captain Drummond; you and he are old friends. You were comrades in the Mexican War, werent you?
That be dd! said his visitor bitterly. All his interests are the other way, and in a trade of this kind, you know, Stacy, that a man would sacrifice his own brother. Do you suppose that hed let up on a sure thing that hes got just because he and I fought side by side at Cerro Gordo? Come! what are you giving us? Youre the last man I ever expected to hear that kind of flapdoodle from. If its because your bank has got some other interest and you cant advise me, why dont you say so? Nevertheless, in spite of Stacys abrupt disclaimer, he left a few minutes later, half convinced that Stacys lukewarmness was due to some adverse influence. Other callers were almost as quickly disposed of, and at the end of an hour Stacy found himself again alone.
But not apparently in a very satisfied mood. After a few moments of purely mechanical memoranda-making, he rose abruptly and opened a small drawer in a cabinet, from which he took a letter still in its envelope. It bore a foreign postmark. Glancing over it hastily, his eyes at last became fixed on a concluding paragraph. I hope, wrote his correspondent, that even in the rush of your big business you will sometimes look after Barker. Not that I think the dear old chap will ever go wrongindeed, I often wish I was as certain of myself as of him and his insight; but I am afraid we were more inclined to be merely amused and tolerant of his wonderful trust and simplicity than to really understand it for his own good and ours. I know you did not like his marriage, and were inclined to believe he was the victim of a rather unscrupulous father and a foolish, unequal girl; but are you satisfied that he would have been the happier without it, or lived his perfect life under other and what you may think wiser conditions? If he WROTE the poetry that he LIVES everybody would think him wonderful; for being what he is we never give him sufficient credit. Stacy smiled grimly, and penciled on his memorandum, He wants it to the amount of ten thousand dollars. Anyhow, continued the writer, look after him, Jim, for his sake, your sake, and the sake ofPHIL DEMOREST.