The mediator conveyed Heinrich to Ersten's with much the same feeling that he would have endured in carrying a full plate of soup—and he had that feeling all through the conference.
"Hello, Heinrich!" greeted Ersten with indifference.
"Hello, Louis!" returned Schnitt with equal nonchalance; then he assumed a rigid pose and recited: "I have come back to work."
"In this place?" asked Ersten, with parrotlike perfection.
A lump came into Heinrich Schnitt's throat. He struggled with that lump, but the simple word "Yes" would not come.
"I say yes; but I don't—"
Johnny jerked him violently by the sleeve.
"He said 'Yes'," he informed Ersten.
"Well, maybe," Ersten was decent enough to admit.
There was an uncomfortable pause in which the two men evinced a slight disposition to glare at each other.