"I admit, my dear, that legitimate worry has its uses. I only warn against the too common abuse of it. I maintain," he went on, turning to Ewing, "that a man with the feelings of a boy should, if there's any moral balance in the world, retain the waistline of a boy; yet I've not done it. I go to doctors—they all talk the same ballyrot about exercise or they harangue you about diet. Why, I've heard them gibber of things one mustn't eat till I writhed in anguish. Some day I know I shall chuck it all and let Nature take her course." He glared defiantly about the table.
"She's not waiting for you to let her, dear," observed his daughter maliciously.
"It's my temperament, I suppose"—he sighed ruefully into his plate of sweet stuff—"just as it's Randy Teevan's temperament to keep slender, though I suspect Randy of stays."
Mrs. Laithe had glanced swiftly toward Ewing at the mention of this name. She again looked at him alertly a moment later when the man announced "Mr. Teevan and Mr. Alden Teevan."
"Alden told me this afternoon at the club, my dear, that he and his father might stop for a moment on their way up town, just to say 'How-de-do.' We can have coffee in the library."
His daughter received this with a meditative under lip. Then she brightened.
"I'm sure you men would rather sit here and smoke while I run in and see them. They'll stay only a minute."
"Nonsense, child! I can't lose sight of you so soon again. We can smoke in there as well."
"Coffee in the library, Harris." She gave the order with a submissive shrug and led the way out.
Ewing saw two men come to greet her, alike enough of feature to reveal their relationship at first glance. He detected, however, a curious contrast they presented. The father, slight and short of stature, was a very young-looking old man, while the son was an old-looking young man. The father was dapper, effusive, sprightly, quick with smiling gestures; the son restrained, deliberate, low-toned with a slow, half-cynical smile of waiting. He gave the effect of subduing what his father almost elfishly expressed.