My companion waited a little. "Sundays," he said at last.

"No wonder, then, you were out of sorts."

"Well, sir," said my friend, "I shouldn't have been where I was three
years ago if I had spent my time travelling round Europe. I was in a
very advantageous position. I did a very large business. I was
considerably interested in lumber." He paused, turned his head, and
looked at me a moment. "Have you any business interests yourself?"
I answered that I had none, and he went on again, slowly, softly,
deliberately. "Well, sir, perhaps you are not aware that business in
the United States is not what it was a short time since. Business
interests are very insecure. There seems to be a general falling-
off. Different parties offer different explanations of the fact, but
so far as I am aware none of their observations have set things going
again." I ingeniously intimated that if business was dull, the time
was good for coming away; whereupon my neighbour threw back his head
and stretched his legs a while. "Well, sir, that's one view of the
matter certainly. There's something to be said for that. These
things should be looked at all round. That's the ground my wife
took. That's the ground," he added in a moment, "that a lady would
naturally take;" and he gave a little dry laugh.

"You think it's slightly illogical," I remarked.

"Well, sir, the ground I took was, that the worse a man's business
is, the more it requires looking after. I shouldn't want to go out
to take a walk--not even to go to church--if my house was on fire.
My firm is not doing the business it was; it's like a sick child, it