“None of you know what you are talking about,” Witherspoon declared.  “I’m as strong as I ever was.  I’m simply annoyed, that’s all.”

“Why don’t you see the doctor?” his wife asked.

“What do I want to see him for?  What does he know about it?  Don’t you worry.  I’m all right.”

His fretfulness was not continuous.  Sometimes his spirits rose to exceeding liveliness, and then he laughed at the young man and joked him about Miss Miller.  But a single word, however lightly spoken, served to turn him back to peevishness.  One evening Henry remarked that he was compelled to leave town on the day following and that he might be absent nearly a week.

“Why, how is this?” Witherspoon asked, with a sudden change of manner.  “The other day you almost swore that it was impossible for you to leave home, and now you are compelled to go.  What do you mean?”

“I have business out of town, and it demands my attention.”

“Business out of town.  The other day you despised business; now you’ve got business out of town.  I’ll take an oath right now that you are the strangest mortal I ever struck.”

“I admit the appearance of inconsistency,” Henry replied.

“And I know the existence of it,” Witherspoon rejoined.

“You think so.  The truth is that the affair I now have on hand had something to do with my objecting to leave town last week.”

“Why don’t you tell me what it is?”

“I will when the time is ripe.”

The merchant grunted.  “Is it a love affair?”

Mrs. Witherspoon became newly concerned.  “In one sense, yes,” Henry answered.  “It is the love of justice.”

Witherspoon called his wife’s attention by clearing his throat.  “Madam, I may be wrong, but it strikes me that your son is crazy.  Good night.”

Henry left town the next morning.  He went to New Jersey.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WORE A ROSE ON HIS COAT.

Henry was absent nearly a week, and upon returning he did not refer to the business that had so peremptorily called him away.  Mrs. Witherspoon still had a fear that it might be a love affair, and Ellen had a fear that it might not be.  To keep the young woman’s interest alive a mystery was necessary, and to free the mother’s love from anxiety unrestrained frankness was essential.  And so there was not enough of mystery to thrill the girl nor enough of frankness to satisfy the mother.  In this way a week was passed.

“I don’t see why you make so much of it,” Witherspoon said to his wife.  “Is there anything so strange in a young man’s leaving town?  Do you expect him to remain forever within calling distance?  He told you that you should know in due time.  What more can you ask?  You are foolishly worried over him, and what is there to worry about?”

“I suppose I am,” she answered, “but I’m so much afraid that he’ll marry some girl that I shall not like.”