“And back there too is Langdon. Mother, do you think I was a fool to leave him?”

“I don’t see what else you could do.”

“Only that a man has a right to fight for his own—giving and taking no quarter.”

“But she isn’t your own, Dick.”

“No,” he admitted, “that’s true. And yet she’s already so big a part of me—”

“Don’t worry, boy.”

“There’s one other thing I wanted to see you about. I ought to settle down now into some sort of definite work. I might get some sort of a teaching position, I suppose.”

“No,” she answered quickly. “There’s no need of that.”

“Well, there’s always the Acme.”

“Nor the Acme either,” she said decidedly.