"No; some other time, when I feel a bit more robust. It isn't every day
that the mind can digest such a period with comfort."

"Are we two old fogies beginning to wear on each other?"

"I hope not. But when you go down, stop for Medora a minute and see if she
hasn't got something to say."

Medora--when he finally got down stairs--had.

She laid some knitting on the drawing-room table and came out into the
hall.

"No reading this afternoon, I judge. What I heard, or seemed to hear, was a
broken flow of talk."

"No reading. Restless."

"So I was afraid. I'd rather have one good steady voice purring along for
him, and then I know he's all right. Carolyn has been too busy lately. What
seems to have unsettled him?"

"Oh, I don't know. Young life, possibly."

"Well, I've asked and asked the girls not to be quite so gay and chattery
in the upper halls."

"You can't keep girls quiet."

"I don't want to--not everywhere and at all times."