He rose reluctantly, went upstairs to his room, and brought them down. He began on the electric company which was offering gold bonds at a price to net four and a half per cent. Then Nora came in to call him to the telephone.

“Who is it, Nora?”

“Miss Stuyvesant, sir.”

“Oh, yes.”

He hurried to the telephone.

“Good-morning, Frances.”

“Dad and Mother have gone to church and it’s very stupid here,” she complained. “Can’t you come over?”

He hesitated the fraction of a second.

“Oh, of course,––if you don’t want to,––” she began quickly.

“It isn’t that, Frances. Of course I want to come; only, there were some papers I brought home from the office––”