"Dick Larrabee, upon my word!"

"Dave Gilman, by all that's great!--Here, let's turn over a seat for
our baggage and sit together. Going home, I s'pose?"

The men had not met for some years, but each knew something of the
other's circumstances and hoped that the other didn't know too much.
They scanned each other's faces, Dick thinking that David looked
pinched and pale, David half-heartedly registering the quick
impression that Dick was prosperous.

"Yes," David answered; "I'm going home for a couple of days. It's such
a confounded journey to that one-horse village that a business man
can't get there but once in a generation!"

"Awful hole!" confirmed Dick. "Simply awful hole! I didn't get it out
of my system for years."

"Married?" asked David.

"No; rather think I'm not the marrying kind, though the fact is I've
had no time for love affairs--too busy. Let's see, you have a child,
haven't you?"

"Yes; Letty has seen to all that business for me since my wife died."
(Wild horses couldn't have dragged the information from him that the
"child" was "twins," and Dick didn't need it anyway, for he had heard
the news the morning he left Beulah.) "Wonder if there have been many
changes in the village?"