"Here, now, young fellow, don't try to saw me!" And then he broke off with this execration: "Oh, this miserable world--this infernal pot where men are boiled!" He rolled his eyes like a choking ox, and after a short silence, asked: "Young fellow, do you know what I'd do if I were of your age?" "If you were of my temperament as well as of my age I don't think you'd do much of anything." "Yes, I would; I would confer a degree of high favor on myself. I would cut my throat, sir." "Pardon me, but is it too late at your time of life?" "Yes, for my nerve is diseased and I am a coward, an infamous, doddering old coward, sir. Good God! to live for years in darkness, bumping against the sharp corners of conscience. I have never told Henry, but I don't mind telling you that at times I am almost mad. For years I have sought to read myself out of it, but to an unsettled mind a book is a sly poison--the greatest of books are but the records of trouble. Don't you say a word to Henry. He thinks that my mind is as sound as a new acorn, but it isn't." "I won't--but, by the way, he is young; why don't you advise him to kill himself?" The old fellow flounced off the sofa and stood bulging his eyes at DeGolyer. "Don't you ever say such a thing as that again!" he snorted. "Why, confound your hide! would you have that boy dead?" DeGolyer threw down his pen. "No, I would have him live forever in his thoughtless and beautiful paradise; I would not pull him down to the thoughtful man's hell of self-communion." "Look here, young man, you must have a history." "No, simply an ill-written essay." "Who was your father?" "A fool." "Ah, I grant you. And who was your mother?" "An angel." "No, sir, she--I beg your pardon," the old man quickly added. "You are sensitive, sir." DeGolyer, sadly smiling, replied: "He who suffered in childhood, and who in after life has walked hand in hand with disappointment, and is then not sensitive, is a brute." "How well do I know the truth of that! DeGolyer, I have been acquainted with you but a short time, but you appeal to me strongly, sir. And I could almost tell you something, but it is something that I ought to keep to myself. I could make you despise me and then offer me your regard as a compromise. Oh, that American republic of ours, fought for by men who scorned the romance of kingly courts, is not so commonplace a country after all. Many strange things happen there, and some of them are desperately foul. Is that Henry coming? Hush." The young man bounded into the room. "Say," he cried, "I've bargained for six of the biggest monkeys you ever saw. That old fellow "-- "Henry," the uncle interrupted, taking up a hat and fanning his purplish face, "you are getting too old for that sort of foolishness. You are a man, you must remember, and it may not be long until you'll be called upon to exercise the judgment of a man."