“Pinch me, my dear.”
“Oh, father! what can you mean—are you losing your mind?” she cries, aghast.
“No, no; but it seems too good to be true; I must be dreaming. So pinch me and I can tell by the pain if I am asleep or awake. If this be a dream, I hope I may never arouse.”
She playfully complies with his request, and the manipulator of wheat utters an exclamation.
“There, there, child, that is quite sufficient. I know now it is a reality,” rubbing his arm vigorously, and then adding; “but, John, my boy, you understand me—this money I will only accept as a loan at ten per cent., unless you would rather go into this business with me. The street is so terribly dull that I have decided to branch out as manager in a great concern. That can be settled later on, however. It would please me to have my son associated with me. This shock to-night has taught me that my nerves are not so much like steel as they once were.”
“Father, you are better now?” asks Dorothy.
“Better? why, of course I am. Dr. John has given me a dose that is bound to cure. I shall soon be myself; but it was a horrible experience, and I feel like a man who has just aroused from a nightmare, trembling and cold. I can see now where Providence worked in this matter; and to you, more than anyone else, my dear daughter, is due the praise.”
“It makes me happy to know that things have come out so well. I believed John could be depended on to show his real affection for you if the time ever came,” returns Dorothy.
“Tell me, do they—our guests—know that something of a shock has come to me?” he asks, smoothing his heavy gray hair with his fingers, an old habit of his.
“I do not think so,” remarks Aleck.