The old man's keen business sense also for the first time grasped the tremendous scope of Gorham's gigantic project. There was no room left to doubt the strength of the appeal of the absolute honesty of purpose after listening to Allen's unconsciously irresistible testimony. In words made pregnant by the simplicity of their utterance, he described Gorham the man and Gorham the Colossus of the business world; he pictured the waves of avarice and intrigue and discontent which he thought he saw beating against the feet of this towering figure, unheeded and unrecognized because so far beneath it; he told of his own puny efforts to warn this giant of the storm which he thought he saw approaching, but in doing this he had betrayed his own ignorance, and had prepared the pit into which he himself had fallen. "And the worst of it all is," Allen concluded, "that I can't see even now where I was wrong; but if Mr. Gorham told me that Napoleon Bonaparte discovered America I would know that, all previous statements to the contrary, he was right." "H'm!" ejaculated Sanford, eager to break over the injunction Gorham had placed upon him. "I don't believe there's anything in what you've said yet that you can't live down. Now I suppose if Gorham had told you that we'd had our lunch, the fact that your father was starving to death wouldn't be accepted as evidence worthy of consideration." Allen laughed as he pulled out his watch, his mind easier and his heart lighter than it had been for months. "I had forgotten all about that, and it's after four o'clock. Come on out with me, and I'll give you a revised version of the 'fatted calf' story." "You think it is the return of the prodigal father, do you?" "I hope we are both prodigals, you dear old pater," Allen replied, seriously; "I hope we both need each other so much that we never can exist alone again." "All right; but we'd better go easy with the calf, for I've accepted a dinner invitation for us both to-night." "You have?" Allen asked, disappointed that their visit was to be interrupted. "Where?" "At Gorham's." "I couldn't go there again, pater," he protested quickly. "He's just asking me because he wants you." "No; he wants to talk with you, especially." "With me?" Allen's face sobered. "He thinks he was harsh the other night. I would rather not open up the whole subject again. There are special reasons. Please go without me." "You don't want to do anything which will make him think worse of you than he does now, do you?" "No," was the frank reply, into which a genuine note of sorrow entered. "Then we'll dine with him, as he asks us to. Now lead on to that calf, but make it a little one." * * * * *