“No,” said Stacey, “I eat bacon, eggs, fish—anything I get.”
“By Jove, you have improved!” Mr. Carroll exclaimed, with another laugh.
After breakfast Stacey drove into town with his father, but left him at the door of the Carroll Building and walked briskly along the street until he came to the building in which Parkins and May, the architects with whom he had worked before the war, had their offices.
He was asked his business formally by the office-boy, new since his time, but waved him aside and opened the door of Mr. Parkins’s private room a little way.
“Yes?” said Mr. Parkins. “Oh, by the Lord! it’s Stacey Carroll! Come in! Come in!” he cried, rising and holding out his hand.
Stacey was pleased at the welcome. There exists between people who have worked hard together a camaraderie, approaching affection, but pleasanter since it makes no demands on expression. Stacey felt it for the men of his battalion; he had forgotten that he felt it for any one else. The rediscovery was a small pleasant surprise. He shook the architect’s hand cordially.
“Of course I saw by the paper this morning that you were back,” Mr. Parkins was saying, “but I’m blessed if I expected you to get around here to-day.”
“Thought I’d drop in,” said Stacey, collapsing lightly into a chair. “How are you?” And he scrutinized the older man’s shrewd clean-shaven face, which showed around the eyes little worried wrinkles, brought there by the perpetual endeavor to reconcile clients’ ideas with some modicum of architectural consistency.
“Pretty well! Pretty well!” Mr. Parkins replied. “These have been lean years, as you know. No building to speak of. But we’ve got all we can do again now and more too, even though the cost of material and labor is so high you’d think it would be prohibitive. But a good many people have made a good deal of money, and, after all, houses have got to be built. There aren’t enough to go round. We surely can use you, Stacey.”
“H’m!” said Stacey. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m out of the running for a while. Not coming back.”