“Ah! you there, Craig? Pretty tough, such an experience to a man of fifty, but there’s a gleam of sunshine through it all, for I have learned one glorious fact, that my children love me.”
He looks proudly upon them, as they stand there one on either side. It is indeed a revelation to this singular man who has led such an isolated life, wrapped up in business.
“Depend upon it, sir, 'there’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.’ Behind this there is some purpose which sooner or later will be made manifest. I saw you here, in abject misery, and guessing the cause, managed to get your son and daughter in without attracting attention. It might be well for all of us to go out among the guests again. Some whisper may go around, and in these times men are quick to seize upon the slightest suspicion and magnify it.”
“You are right, Mr. Craig. I am ready to go. If anyone mentions that I look pale, tell them I have had a little attack of—well, heart trouble.”
“Before we go, father, let us decide this business.”
“The morning will do, John.”
“Pardon me, the morning might be too late. My habits have become set in this way—I would get out of bed to carry an idea to completion.”
“Just as you say, John—I am guided entirely by your wishes in this matter,” says the speculator, but his eyes twinkle in something like their old-time way—this resolute manner which John assumes tickles him immensely, for he awakens to the fact that his son is no longer a boy, but capable of managing any business.
“The message says fifty thousand. I have been careful not to get tied up during this period of financial panic, and happen to have that amount in one of your Chicago banks at this moment. The easiest thing to be done under such circumstances is for me to sit right down at this desk, where everything seems so very handy, and make you out a check for the amount. Luckily I have a blank one with me. To save time I would, if I were you, send a message to-night—now, to your agent, telling him to close the deal.”
“Just as you say, John. I confess my head is slightly rattled to-night—it shall be as you suggest,” and he proceeds to write at the table on the back of the message he had received.