"Perhaps I might do that anyhow."
"Well, you are an odd man. I'll not dispute that. What you will do at any given time I'll not try to prophesy."
The twain separate. However, of any two men in Chicago, perhaps David Lockwin and Dr. Tarpion are most agreeable to each other. From boyhood they have been familiar. If one has said to the other, "Do that!" it has been done.
"I fear you cannot be spared from your other guests, Esther," says Lockwin.
"I fear you are trying to escape to that dear doctor of yours. Now, are you not?"
"No. I have been with him for half an hour already. Esther, you are a fine-looking woman. Upon my honor, now--"
She will not tolerate it, yet she never looked so pleased before.
"Tell me," she says, "of your little boy."
"Of my foundling?"
"Yes, I love to hear you speak of him."