"Good for you!" said Jeduthun, very much pleased. "I thought you'd come out all right when you came to consider about it, and then you'd see that I spoke as a friend."
"I'm sure of that," returned Eben. "I only hope you will always do the same."
Eben was busy doing something in the office when Jeduthun put his head in the room.
"I say, Mr. Antis, here's the old gentleman a-coming."
"The old gentleman! Not Mr. Francis!" exclaimed Mr. Antis, starting. "What in the world has brought him so suddenly?"
Mr. Antis hastened down to the door to meet the mill owner.
Mr. Francis was a testy old gentleman with a pretty large sense of his own consequence and dignity; nevertheless, those who knew him best spoke highly of his uprightness and generosity. The moment that Mr. Antis saw him he perceived that something had gone wrong.
"I think, Mr. Antis," was his first salutation—"I think you might have exerted yourself so much as to send some one to meet me. I know it is not the fashion just now to pay much respect to old people, but I think, considering all things, you might have done as much as that."
"I am very sorry, sir," replied Mr. Antis. "If I had expected you, I should have met you, certainly."
"And may I ask, Mr. Antis—not that it signifies, of course—but may I ask why you did not expect me, when I wrote you three days ago that I should be at the Springs this morning?"