Mr. Harker shook his head with a grim semblance of a smile. “That’s the trouble, Mrs. Alexander, we can’t send any checks, Mr. Alexander is the one who does that. Everything is in Mr. Alexander’s name. I went to Mr. Leverich to-day to see how we were going to straighten out things, but he doesn’t seem inclined to take hold at all, though he could help us out easily enough if he wanted to. I—there’s no use keeping it back, Mrs. Alexander. This is a pretty bad time for Mr. Alexander to stay away. He ought to be home.” “Why, yes,” said Lois. “Exactly. His absence places us all in a very strange, very unpleasant position.” Mr. Harker spoke with a sort of somber monotony, with his gaze on the ground. “The business requires the most particular management at the moment—the most particular. I—” He raised his eyes with such tragic earnestness that Lois realized for the first time that this manner of his might not be his usual manner, but was called forth by the stress of anxiety. For the first time also, the force of the daily tie of business companionship was borne in upon her. She looked at Mr. Harker. This man spent more waking hours with Justin than she did—knew him, perhaps, in a sense, better. He went on now, with a tremor in his voice: “Mrs. Alexander, your husband and I have worked together for a year and a half now, with never a word between us. I’m ready to swear by him any moment, if I’ve got him to swear by. I’ll back him up in anything, no matter what, if it’s his say-so—we’ve pulled through a good many tight places. But I can’t do it alone; it’s madness to try. If he doesn’t show up, I’d better close the place down at once.” “Why do you say this to me?” asked Lois, shrinking a little. “Why? because,—Mrs. Alexander, this is no time to mince words; if you know where your husband is, for God’s sake, get word to him to come back—every minute is precious. He may be ill—Heaven knows he had enough to make him so; my wife knows the strain I’ve been through, she says she wonders I’m alive,—but he can’t look after his health now. If he’s on top of ground, he’s got to _come_. I’ve put every cent I own into this business. I haven’t drawn my whole salary, even, for months. I don’t know what reasons he has for staying away, but his nerve mustn’t give out now.” “Mr. Harker!” cried Lois. She turned blankly to Dosia, who had come forward. “What does he mean?” “She doesn’t know where her husband is,” said the girl convincingly. Her eyes and Mr. Harker’s met. The somber eagerness faded out of his; he sighed and rose. “Anything I can do for you, Mrs. Alexander? I think I’ll hurry to catch the next train; I haven’t been home to my dinner yet.” “Won’t you have something here before you go?” asked Lois. “It’s so late.”