'Come! now for some breakfast,' said Mr. Burns. 'Everything will be cold. Never mind, we can afford a cold breakfast on such news as this. I am sorry I had not pressed Meeker to stay, but I thought he was anxious to get away. He is an odd fellow.'
'Why, he had been to breakfast, father.'
'Yes, but one would suppose he would have run directly here, and said, in a word, how successful he was. He is very odd.
'I think, father, we may excuse his oddity for once.'
'Indeed we may.'
Mr. Burns rapidly finished, and hastened to the office.
He found Hiram at work at his desk on the ordinary business, which had accumulated in his absence, apparently as calm and unconcerned as if he had not been absent.
Mr. Burns seized his hand, and thanked him for his admirable achievement, with all the ardor and sincerity of his enthusiastic and honest nature. Hiram was undisturbed by it. His cold, clammy palm rested in the vigorous, cordial grasp of his employer unresponsive and unsympathizing. But Mr. Burns was in too happy and active a mood himself to be affected by that of his clerk. For the time, his was the ruling influence; and Hiram was the one insensibly to yield.
Mr. Burns asked so many questions that at last he got the particulars from Hiram, which naturally he very much enjoyed. These particulars were recounted with modesty, without the slightest exhibition of egotism or conceit.
'I cannot sufficiently thank you, Meeker,' said Mr. Burns, 'and I hope to show you some time how much I appreciate what you have done for me.'