TRYING TO BE ECONOMICAL.
"Check your passions, learn philosophy. When the wife of the great Socrates threw a teapot at his erudite head, he was as cool as a cucumber."
—Newell.
"Where is father? Is he sick?" It is breakfast hour, and the head of the house was not in his usual seat at the head of the table. To Zoe's knowledge this is the first morning she has failed to see the familiar form sitting in his big chair, glasses on, reading the morning papers.
"Your father was called away suddenly on business," was the short reply from aunt Adeline, who looks as if she had not closed her eyes all night. Jet Glen, lazily reading down the columns of the paper, almost springs from his seat, as his eye rests on a certain paragraph.
"Lend me the paper a moment, please." Zoe's voice awakens him from his trance of surprise.
"In one minute," coolly taking the scissors from the window sill. "A trifle here I want to cut out." Zoe looks curious.
"Let me see, won't you?" she persists.
"Really, Miss Curiosity, it would do you no good, and I am not going to give you my reasons for everything I do," is the playful reply, as he goes out the low French window.
"What is the trouble with this house anyway? Everything seems upside down. Tell me, aunt Adeline, where has father gone?"