"She will be here in a minute, sir—as soon as she changes her gown." She nodded to him and was gone.
And the boy and his father sat facing each other, with the light lessening in the room.
"How was the garden?" asked Medfield.
"Fine! I never saw it look so well!" The boy's voice was happy.
Medfield's eyes twinkled. "Perhaps you were not altogether fitted to judge." He was leaning back in his chair and looking at the light in his son's face.
"Perhaps not. I was never so happy in my life—I know that!" And his voice was serious now, with a deeper note in it than his father had heard.
And Herman Medfield began to speak of the business and of Dalton, and of his purpose to see Dalton.... They could use him, perhaps, in some minor capacity and see how he did.
"I have an idea that he may be the very man for your secretary—for your personal work, you know. I've always depended a good deal on Sully. You must have some one of your own.... Suppose you see this man Dalton yourself. See him to-morrow. Get the address from Aunt Jane—" He paused.... A look came to his face.
"You told Munson to send the roses, did you?"
"I told him. Yes. He'll send them to-night." The reply was absent. The young man's mind was reaching out to business and to the responsibilities that he saw his father would lay on him.