The older man waved his hand hastily.
"You can from me. I have been your father for a good many years."
There was a pause. Then Long blushed slowly. "I don't know that I can," he said at length. "Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?" It was the doctor's turn for silence.
"If you don't go now, you will not be likely to go for a long time." His eyes kept firmly on the young man's face.
"And if I have a reason to stay here?"
"There can be no reason stronger than your success."
"But there is—at least," he paused, awkwardly—"I feel there is, I hope there is."
"Do you know why I have backed you so persistently?"
"You have been awfully kind!"
"It was not altogether on your father's account," the doctor interrupted him. "I might have put you in some business and left you to fight your own way. That kind of experience we all know makes men, the successful men, who are tried and found capable of bearing strains. I have saved you so far from that struggle. Why?