"Well, I expect to love Sarah just as much when I get back to work. Business is a man's place, as the house is a woman's. Take either out of their places for long, and something is likely to go wrong with them." She laughed at my satisfied wisdom. "Are you so needed over there in the office?" "You must ask your husband that." "He says that you are the cleverest man they have had for years. Does that make you proud?" "Thank you!" "Will you let the big dog Strauss eat us?" she laughed on. "I'll tell you a few years later, madam." "Yes," she mused, "you are right. A man, a strong man--and that's the only kind that is a man--must be at work. The sweetest love can't keep him long." Here Sarah's voice reached us:-- "You mustn't distract him to-day of all days, Jane!" "He can't be distracted long, my child--by anybody!" * * * * * We had taken a pleasant house on one of the broad avenues to the south beyond the smoke bank, with a bit of a garden and a few trees. When we got back from New York we found supper waiting for us, roses on the table, a bottle of wine ready to open, and on the sideboard a box of cigars. "The hand of Jane!" remarked my wife, as she rearranged the flowers and put the roses on the mantelpiece. "The hand of Jane?" I repeated dully. "You mean Mrs. Dround did it all?" "Yes, of course; it reaches everywhere." And Sarah did not look as much pleased as I expected. CHAPTER XII AN HONORABLE MERCHANT _Mr. Dround's little weakness--An unpleasant occurrence--To the best of one's knowledge--"Kissing goes by favor," and other things--Switch-tracks and rebates--Carmichael talks--An item of charity--Our manager goes over to the enemy--I am offered his place--A little talk on the moral side--The dilemma of the righteous--What is, is good enough for me_ "Mr. Dround seems to be doing a good deal of talking for the benefit of his neighbors," Slocum observed one day when I was in his office. "Oh, he likes the job of making the country over! It suits him to talk more than to sell pork." "Did you see what he said last night?" Slocum continued. "No, what was it? Free trade or college education?" For Mr. Henry I. Dround was long on both subjects. He had always fooled more or less with politics, having come out as a mugwump and free-trader under Cleveland. That kind of doctrine wasn't much in favor among the business men of Chicago, but Dround liked being in the minority. He was an easy, scholarly speaker, and was always ready to talk at dinners and public meetings. "It seems to me I saw something in the papers of his speaking at the Jefferson Club banquet," I went on; "but I didn't pay any attention to it. The old man is rather long on wind."