“Nothing is the matter with me,” he replied. “I must have been reading something that gave my thoughts a morbid turn. Still, your reasoning seems to be that of a man who never has been tested. Your view has been my view, but I can see how a man’s views may change when he is confronted by the actual conditions concerning which he has previously only theorized. I don’t think you’re right.” “It’s a disagreeable subject, even for abstract consideration,” asserted Benson. “Let’s drop it.” “All right,” said Kalin. “I’m going in to lunch.” In the dining-room he got into an obscure corner and the waiter had to joggle his elbow to rouse him from the reverie into which he immediately fell. Then, after barely tasting the lunch he ordered, he went to the office of the club and asked that all charges against him be footed up. “There’s nothing against me at all now?” he said inquiringly as he paid the bill. “Nothing at all, sir,” replied the clerk. “I’d hate to leave any club debts,” he remarked, as if talking aloud to himself. At his office he found his sons still gloomily discussing the situation. “I think,” he said, “that I have found a way to save the business.” “How?” they asked eagerly. “The details are not quite clear in my mind yet,” he replied. “I would like to give them a little more thought before explaining the matter. But, if I succeed in pulling you through, you boys must be mighty careful in the future. A concern doesn’t get out of this kind of hole twice, and I’m going to turn it all over to you.” “Why?” asked Albert in surprise. “I ruined one business,” was the reply. “One is enough. Be cautious. Go slow. You’ve got a good thing—a fortune—if you handle your finances properly and don’t try to spread out too fast.” He shook hands with both the boys, to their great bewilderment. “Where are you going?” asked Sidney. “One would think you were starting on a long journey.” “I’m taking leave of the business,” he answered, with a laugh that had something of pathos in it. “I’m going to shut myself up for a day or so until I get my little scheme elaborated, and then you shall have the benefit of it, but I am out of active business.” Sidney and Albert were silent for some time after he had left. Jonas Kalin always had been a rather eccentric man, and they were accustomed to letting his whims and peculiarities of word and action pass without comment, but there was something in this parting that made them feel uncomfortable. “I don’t like it,” remarked Sidney. “I wonder if the worry and disappointment have been too much for him.” “It is a hard blow to him—not for himself, but for us,” returned Albert. “However, we’ll see him this evening.”