He looked up, vaguely at first, then smiling. "Ah, roused your curiosity, did I? Well, it's just another phase of this eternal boy question." Carol leaned forward ingratiatingly. "Now indeed, we are all absorption." "Why, it's a letter from Andrew Hedges,--an old college chum of mine. His son is going west and Andy is sending him around this way to see me and meet my family. He'll be here this afternoon. Isn't it a shame?" "Isn't it lovely?" exclaimed Carol. "We can use him to make Jim Forrest jealous if he doesn't ask for that date?" And she rose up and kissed her father. "Will you kindly get back to your seat, young lady, and not interfere with my thoughts?" he reproved her sternly but with twinkling eyes. "The trouble is I have to go to Fort Madison on the noon train for that Epworth League convention. I'd like to see that boy. Andy's done well, I guess. I've always heard so. He's a millionaire, they say." For a long second his daughters gazed at him speechlessly. Then, "A millionaire's son," Lark faltered feebly. "Yes." "Why on earth didn't you say so in the first place?" demanded Carol. "What difference does that make?" "It makes all the difference in the world! Ah! A millionaire's son." She looked at Lark with keen speculative eyes. "Good-looking, I suppose, young, of course, and impressionable. A millionaire's son." "But I have to go to Fort Madison. I am on the program to-night. There's the puzzle." "Oh, father, you can leave him to us," volunteered Lark. "I'm afraid you mightn't carry it off well. You're so likely to run by fits and jumps, you know. I should hate it if things went badly." "Oh, father, things couldn't go badly," protested Carol. "We'll be lovely, just lovely. A millionaire's son! Oh, yes, daddy, you can trust him to us all right." At last he caught the drift of their enthusiasm. "Ah! I see! That fatal charm. You're sure you'll treat him nicely?" "Oh, yes, father, so sure. A millionaire's son. We've never even seen one yet." "Now look here, girls, fix the house up and carry it off the best you can. I have a lot of old friends in Cleveland, and I want them to think I've got the dandiest little family on earth." "'Dandiest'! Father, you will forget yourself in the pulpit some day,--you surely will. And when we take such pains with you, too, I can't understand where you get it! The people you associate with, I suppose." "Do your best, girls. I'm hoping for a good report. I'll be gone until the end of the week, since I'm on for the last night, too. Will you do your best?" After his departure, Carol gathered the family forces about her without a moment's delay.