Wayne was busy at his desk when his father entered and closed the door behind him. He had been checking an estimate of his father’s liabilities and he knew that Roger Craighill owed a large sum of money--a very large sum indeed--and in December the fog of the October scare still lay upon the land. “Wayne, I want to see you for a few minutes,” and Wayne started guiltily at the sound of his father’s voice and thrust his memorandum out of sight in a drawer. “You may not be aware,” began Colonel Craighill, “that the general financial conditions are serious.” Wayne’s resentment rose on the instant, as always at these implications that he was unacquainted with the affairs of the business world. A sharp retort was on his lips; the morning papers had contained the latest of his father’s reassuring statements as to the brightening outlook, but he answered: “Well, it’s been on for some time, hasn’t it? I thought everybody began to get to cover last spring.” “Things tightened up in the fall but I had expected the trouble to be over by this time, but the pinch has grown sharper than I expected. The conditions are very unusual but they ought to adjust themselves. My anticipations have all been correct, though our financial mechanism is still slightly out of adjustment in vital quarters. My own affairs are, of course, subject to general laws like everyone else’s.” Luck is a goddess in all our mythologies, but we credit our own wisdom when affairs prosper. Mistakes, when we assume blame for them at all, are at the most mere sinistral inadvertences: heavier losses we charge to the blindfold goddess and her dice-box. Wayne knew that his father had not come into his room to philosophize, and he groped for light as to the real object of the interview. Colonel Craighill took a lead pencil from Wayne’s desk and played with it nervously. Wayne was struck by the fact that his father did not look well to-day; his fine colour was lacking and there were dark lines under his eyes. “You’d never know from the newspapers that there’s anything wrong. I thought your interview in Boston that our papers copied this morning was quite conclusive.” Colonel Craighill glanced at his son quickly. Wayne’s tone was perfectly respectful and he met his father’s eyes steadily. Colonel Craighill shrugged his shoulders impatiently. “We must do what we can to tranquilize the public mind. I was asked to say something in the press occasionally by a number of our strongest men. They seemed to think I was the best person to do it”; and his eyes brightened for a moment at the consciousness that he had been chosen as sponsor for the city’s business interests. “I have found it necessary to increase my collateral in several places. I don’t quite like being required to do it; the demand comes just at the wrong time for some of my investments. You have some stock, haven’t you, in the Mexican Plantations Company?” Wayne’s heart gave a big throb and he smiled.