you'd been idling. Your four years abroad have been just so much
capital. Educational capital, I mean. I've got plenty of the other kind,
for both of us. You don't need to go into the business unless you want
to."

"Being an American, I suppose I've got to go to work at something."

"Not necessarily."

"You don't want me to live on you all my life, though, I suppose."

"Well, I don't want you to want me to want you to," returned the other,
laughing. "But there's no hurry."

"To tell the truth, I'm rather bored with doing nothing. And if I can be
of any use to you in the business--"

"You're ready to resume the partnership," his father concluded the
sentence for him. "That was the foundation of it all; the old days when
I did the 'spieling' and you took in the dollars. How quick your little
hands were! Can you remember it? The smelly smoke of the torches, and
the shadows chasing each other across the crowds below. And to think
what has grown out of it. God, Boyee! It's a miracle," he exulted.

"It isn't very clear in my memory. I used to get pretty sleepy, I
remember," said the son, smiling.

"Poor Boyee! Sometimes I hated the life, for you. But there was nobody
to leave you with; and you were all I had. Anyway, it's turned out well,
hasn't it?"