He coughed again, smiled heartily upon her, and walked toward the
door; then turned back to her with an exclamation: "Well, if I
ain't an old fool!"

"What is it?" she asked.

"Why, I forgot what we were just talking about! Your father
wants to settle for Walter's deficit. Tell him we'll be glad to
accept it; but of course we don't expect him to clean the matter
up until he's able to talk business again."

Alice stared at him blankly enough for him to perceive that
further explanations were necessary. "It's like this," he said.
"You see, if your father decided to keep his works going over
yonder, I don't say but he might give us some little competition
for a time, 'specially as he's got the start on us and about
ready for the market. Then I was figuring we could use his
plant--it's small, but it'd be to our benefit to have the use of
it--and he's got a lease on that big lot; it may come in handy
for us if we want to expand some. Well, I'd prefer to make a
deal with him as quietly as possible---no good in every Tom, Dick
and Harry hearing about things like this--but I figured he could
sell out to me for a little something more'n enough to cover the
mortgage he put on this house, and Walter's deficit, too--THAT
don't amount to much in dollars and cents. The way I figure it,
I could offer him about ninety-three hundred dollars as a
total--or say ninety-three hundred and fifty--and if he feels
like accepting, why, I'll send a confidential man up here with
the papers soon's your father's able to look 'em over. You tell