Mr. Wright got up again, his fingers twitching with impatience. "Lavendar," he began--another bird trilled, and snarling with annoyance, he pulled the blue apron from the first cage and threw it over the second. "These creatures drive me distracted! ... Lavendar, to get Sam out of Old Chester, I might almost consent to see his--_mother_, if there was no other way to accomplish it." At that Dr. Lavendar stopped smiling. "Benjamin," he said solemnly, "if any foolishness on the part of the boy brings you to such wisdom, the hand of the Lord will be in it!" "I don't want to see--his relations!" cried Benjamin Wright; "but Sam's got to get away from this place for a while, and if you won't persuade his--_mother_ to allow it, why I might be driven to seeing--her. But why shouldn't he try to get his truck published?" Dr. Lavendar was very much moved. "If you'll only see your son," he said, "this other business will straighten itself out somehow. But--" he paused; "getting Sam's play published isn't a very good excuse for seeing him. I'd rather have him think you were worried because the boy had an attack of calf-love. No; I wouldn't want you to talk about theatrical things," Dr. Lavendar ended thoughtfully. "Why not?" "Well, the fact is, Samuel has no sympathy with dramas or playhouses. I do not myself approve of the theatre, but I am told respectable persons have adopted the profession. Samuel, however, can't find any good in it." "He can't, can't he? Well, well; it was efficacious--it was efficacious!" "What was efficacious?" Benjamin Wright laughed loudly. "You--don't know? He never told you?" "You mean what you and he quarrelled about? No; he never told me." "He was a fool." "Benjamin, if you were not a fool at twenty-four; you missed a good deal." "And now he objects to theatrical things?" "He objects so intensely," said Dr. Lavendar, "that, anxious as I am to have you meet and bring this foolish and wicked quarrel to an end, I should really hesitate to have you do so, if you insisted on discussing that subject." Benjamin Wright lifted one trembling fist. "It was efficacious!" "And you would give your right hand to undo it," said Dr. Lavendar. The very old man lowered his shaking right hand and looked at it; then he said sullenly, "I only wanted his own good. You ought to see that--a parson!" "But you forget; I don't know what it was about." Mr. Wright's face twitched. "Well," he said spasmodically, "I'll-tell you. I--" "Yes?" "I--" his voice broke, then he coughed, then he tried to laugh. "Simple enough; simple enough. I had occasion to send him to Mercer. He was to come back that night." Mr. Wright stopped; poured some whiskey into his glass, and forgetting to add any water, drank it at a gulp, "He didn't come back until the next afternoon." "Yes. Well?" "In those days I was of--of somewhat hasty temper." "So I have heard," said Dr. Lavendar,