“Have you spoken to Mr. Fulkerson?” he asked.

“No, I hain’t.  It ain’t a question of management.  It’s a question of buying and selling.  I offer the thing to you first.  I reckon Fulkerson couldn’t get on very well without you.”

March saw the real difference in the two cases, and he was glad to see it, because he could act more decisively if not hampered by an obligation to consistency.  “I am gratified, of course, Mr. Dryfoos; extremely gratified; and it’s no use pretending that I shouldn’t be happy beyond bounds to get possession of ‘Every Other Week.’  But I don’t feel quite free to talk about it apart from Mr. Fulkerson.”

“Oh, all right!” said the old man, with quick offence.

March hastened to say:  “I feel bound to Mr. Fulkerson in every way.  He got me to come here, and I couldn’t even seem to act without him.”

He put it questioningly, and the old man answered: 

“Yes, I can see that.  When ’ll he be in?  I can wait.”  But he looked impatient.

“Very soon, now,” said March, looking at his watch.  “He was only to be gone a moment,” and while he went on to talk with Dryfoos, he wondered why the old man should have come first to speak with him, and whether it was from some obscure wish to make him reparation for displeasures in the past, or from a distrust or dislike of Fulkerson.  Whichever light he looked at it in, it was flattering.

“Do you think of going abroad soon?” he asked.

“What?  Yes—­I don’t know—­I reckon.  We got our passage engaged.  It’s on one of them French boats.  We’re goin’ to Paris.”

“Oh!  That will be interesting to the young ladies.”

“Yes.  I reckon we’re goin’ for them.  ’Tain’t likely my wife and me would want to pull up stakes at our age,” said the old man, sorrowfully.

“But you may find it do you good, Mr. Dryfoos,” said March, with a kindness that was real, mixed as it was with the selfish interest he now had in the intended voyage.

“Well, maybe, maybe,” sighed the old man; and he dropped his head forward.  “It don’t make a great deal of difference what we do or we don’t do, for the few years left.”

“I hope Mrs. Dryfoos is as well as usual,” said March, finding the ground delicate and difficult.

“Middlin’, middlin’,” said the old man.  “My daughter Christine, she ain’t very well.”

“Oh,” said March.  It was quite impossible for him to affect a more explicit interest in the fact.  He and Dryfoos sat silent for a few moments, and he was vainly casting about in his thought for something else which would tide them over the interval till Fulkerson came, when he heard his step on the stairs.

“Hello, hello!” he said.  “Meeting of the clans!” It was always a meeting of the clans, with Fulkerson, or a field day, or an extra session, or a regular conclave, whenever he saw people of any common interest together.  “Hain’t seen you here for a good while, Mr. Dryfoos.  Did think some of running away with ‘Every Other Week’ one while, but couldn’t seem to work March up to the point.”