His eyes devoured the restless scene.
"I guess there's a bit more traffic here than in your South Sea island," laughed Mr Hunter. "Did you like it there?"
"Give me Chicago, dad," answered Bateman.
"You haven't brought Edward Barnard back with you."
"No."
"How was he?"
Bateman was silent for a moment, and his handsome, sensitive face darkened.
"I'd sooner not speak about him, dad," he said at last.
"That's all right, my son. I guess your mother will be a happy woman to-day."
They passed out of the crowded streets in the Loop and drove along the lake till they came to the imposing house, an exact copy of a château on the Loire, which Mr Hunter had built himself some years before. As soon as Bateman was alone in his room he asked for a number on the telephone. His heart leaped when he heard the voice that answered him.