So she kept silent, and saw with grief the havoc business troubles were
making with her father's health.
'The old man,' said young Longworth, 'seems to be in a corner.'
'I do not want you ever again to allude to my father as "the old
man"--remember that!' cried the girl indignantly.
Young Longworth shrugged his shoulders, and said:
'I don't think you can insist on my calling him a young man much longer.
If he isn't an old man, I should like to know who is?'
'That doesn't matter,' said Edith. 'You must not use such a phrase again
in my hearing. What do you mean by saying he is in a corner?'
'Well,' returned the young man, 'I don't know much about his business. He
does not take me into his confidence at all. In fact, the older he grows,
the closer he gets, and the chances are he will make some very bad
speculation before long, if he has not done so already. That is the way
with old men, begging your pardon for using the phrase. It is not
levelled against your father in this instance, but at old men as a class,
especially men who have been successful. They seem to resent anybody
giving them advice.'
One day Edith received a telegram, asking her to come to the office in
the City without delay. She was panic-stricken when she read the message,
feeling sure her father had been stricken down in his office, and was
probably dying--perhaps dead. She had feared some such result for a long
time, because of the intense anxiety to which he had been subjected, and
he was not a man who could be counselled to take care of himself on the
plea that he was getting old.
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