“Try it, Andrew.  I usually take a thimbleful myself before going to bed.”

The novelty of this sort of ministration was in itself sufficient to lift a weary and discouraged spirit.  Mrs. Owen measured his whiskey, and poured it into a tall glass, explaining as she did so that a friend of hers in Louisville kept her supplied out of the stores of the Pendennis Club.

“It’s off the wood.  This bottled drug-store whiskey is poison.  I’d just as lief take paregoric.  I drew this from my own ‘bar’l’ this morning.  Don’t imagine I’m a heavy consumer.  A ‘bar’l’ lasts me a long time.  I divide it around among my friends.  Remind me to give you some to take home.  Try one of those cigars; John Ware keeps a box here.  If they’re cabbage leaf it isn’t my fault.”

“No, thanks, Sally.  You’re altogether too kind to me.  It’s mighty good to be here, I can tell you.”

“Now that you are here, Andrew, I want you to remember that I’m getting on and you’re just a trifle ahead of me on the dusty pike that has no turning.”

“I wish I had your eternal youth, Sally.  I feel about ninety-nine to-night.”

“That’s the reason I’m keeping you up.  You came here to talk about something that’s on your mind, and the sooner it’s over the better.  No use in your lying awake all night.”

Professor Kelton played with his glass and moved uneasily in his chair.

“Come right out with it, Andrew.  If it’s money that worries you, don’t waste any time explaining how it happened; just tell me how much.  I had my bank book balanced yesterday and I’ve got exactly twelve thousand four hundred and eighteen dollars and eleven cents down at Tom Adams’s bank.  If you can use it you’re welcome; if it ain’t enough I’m about to sell a bunch o’ colts I’ve got on my Lexington place and they’re good for six thousand more.  I can close the trade by a night telegram right now.”

Kelton laughed.  The sums she named so lightly represented wealth beyond the dreams of avarice.  It afforded him infinite relief to be able to talk to her, and though he had come to the city for the purpose, his adventures of the day with banks and trust companies had given a new direction to his needs.  But the habit of secrecy, of fighting out his battles alone, was so thoroughly established that he found it difficult to enter into confidences even when this kind-hearted friend made the way easy for him.

“Come, out with it, Andrew.  You’re the only person I know who’s never come to me with troubles.  I’d begun to think you were among the lucky ones who never have any or else you were afraid of me.”

“It’s not fair to trouble you about this, but I’m in a corner where I need help.  When I asked you to let me bring Sylvia here I merely wanted you to look her over.  She’s got to an age where I can’t trust my judgment about her.  I had a plan for her that I thought I could put through without much trouble, but I found out to-day that it isn’t so easy.  I wanted to send her to college.”