"You were too young to understand, Lorry."

"And is that why you left him?"

"Yes."

"Well, maybe you were right. But dad sure looks like a pretty decent
hombre to me."

They laughed in a kind of relief. The occasion had seemed rather
strained.

"Ask your mother, Lorry. I am out of it." And, rising Waring strode to
the doorway.

Lorry rose.

"I'll see you again," said Waring. And he stepped to the street, humming
his song of "Sonora and the Silver Strings."

Mrs. Adams put her arm about her son's shoulders. "Your father is a hard
man," she told him.

"Was he mean to you, mother?"

"No--never that."

"Well, I don't understand it. He looks like a real man to me. Why did he
come back?"