how long?"

"Oh, a day or two. You see, Kitty"--

Stacy checked him with a movement of his pencil in the air, and then
wrote down, "'Day or two.' Wife with you?"

"Yes; and oh, Stacy, our boy! Ah!" he went on, with a laugh, knocking
aside the remonstrating pencil, "you must listen! He's just the
sweetest, knowingest little chap living. Do you know what we're going to
christen him? Well, he'll be Stacy Demorest Barker. Good names, aren't
they? And then it perpetuates the dear old friendship."

Stacy picked up the pencil again, wrote "Wife and child S. D. B.," and
leaned back in his chair. "Now, Barker," he said briefly, "I'm coming
to dine with you tonight at 7.30 sharp. THEN we'll talk Heavy Tree Hill,
wife, baby, and S. D. B. But here I'm all for business. Have you any
with me?"

Barker, who was easily amused, had extracted a certain entertainment out
of Stacy's memorandum, but he straightened himself with a look of eager
confidence and said, "Certainly; that's just what it is--business. Lord!
Stacy, I'm ALL business now. I'm in everything. And I bank with you,
though perhaps you don't know it; it's in your Branch at Marysville. I
didn't want to say anything about it to you before. But Lord! you
don't suppose that I'd bank anywhere else while you are in the
business--checks, dividends, and all that; but in this matter I felt you
knew, old chap. I didn't want to talk to a banker nor to a bank, but to
Jim Stacy, my old partner."