"We will, if you will support him then."
"Here is an agreement covering these points," said Mr. Fenno. "Shall we put our names to this?"
It was on a scene of paper-signing, then, that Mather entered. Some of the gentlemen looked up and nodded to him; others—they were all his seniors—continued passing the papers around the table. He paused with his hand upon the door-knob.
"Am I in the way?" he asked.
"Everything is decided without you," answered Mr. Fenno. "We have merely disposed of your time for the next eighteen months."
Mather laughed, threw off his coat, and took a chair. They explained matters to him; in her seclusion Judith listened long before she heard him say a word. Then he began to ask questions, deep and far-reaching, but every difficulty had been considered beforehand.
"And my obligations to you, Mr. Pease?" he said once. "I was not to quit the Electrolytic Company until the fall."
"I have arranged all that," Pease replied. "The new Chebasset manager is very satisfactory; we will promote him."
"Well, what do you say?" asked Fenno, when every point had been covered.