The ring-off sounded mockingly in the old man's ear. With an oath he caught up the telephone apparatus and flung it at Hugo's head. "Ass! Ass!" he shouted, shaking his cane at his son, who had barely dodged the heavy instrument. "Vacate that apartment! Take the first steamer for Europe! And don't you show up in town again until I give you leave. Hide yourself! Ass! Ass!"
Hugo scudded like a swallow before a tempest. "Is there any depth," he said when he felt at a safe distance, "any depth to which father wouldn't descend, for the sake of money—and drag us down with him?" He admitted that perhaps he had not acted altogether discreetly. "I oughtn't to have roused Armstrong's envy by letting him see my rooms." Still, that could have been easily repaired. Certainly, it wasn't necessary to grovel before an employee—"and a damned thief at that." By the time he reached his apartments, he was quite restored to favor with himself. He hurried the servants away, telephoned for a firm of packers and movers to come at once. As he rang off, a call came for him. He recognized the voice of Armstrong's secretary.
"Is that Mr. Hugo Fosdick? Well, Mr. Armstrong asks me to say that it won't be necessary for you to give up those offices uptown to-day, that you can keep them as long as you please."
"Aha!" thought Hugo, triumphant again. "He has come to his senses. I knew it—I knew he would!" To the secretary he simply said, "Very well," and rang up his father. It was nearly half an hour before he could get him; the wire was busy. At his first word, the old man said, "Ring off there! I don't want to hear or see you. You take that steamer to-morrow!"
"Armstrong has weakened, father," cried Hugo.
"What!" answered the old man, not less savage, but instantly eager.
"He has just telephoned, practically apologizing, and asking me not to disturb myself about the apartment. I knew he'd come down when he thought it over."
A silence, then his father said in a milder tone: "Well—you keep away from the office. Don't touch business, don't go near it, until I tell you to. And don't come near me till I send for you. What else did Armstrong say?"
"Just what I told you—nothing more. But when I see him, he'll apologize, no doubt."
"See that you don't see him," snapped the old man. "Keep away from anybody that knows anything of business. Keep to that crowd of empty-heads you travel with. Do you understand?"