Henry’s tone was obviously, even elaborately, sincere; and Herbert was reassured.  “Well, I didn’t see him,” he responded.  “Maybe he’s sick.”

“No, he isn’t,” his friend said.  “Florence said she saw him chasin’ his dog down the street about noon.”

At this Herbert’s uneasiness was uncomfortably renewed. “Florence did?  Where’d you see Florence?”

Mr. Rooter swallowed.  “A little while ago,” he said, and again swallowed.  “On the way home from school.”

“Look—­look here!” Herbert was flurried to the point of panic.  “Henry—­did Florence—­did she go and tell you—­did she tell you——?”

“I didn’t hardly notice what she was talkin’ about,” Henry said doggedly.  “She didn’t have anything to say that I’d ever care two cents about.  She came up behind me and walked along with me a ways, but I got too many things on my mind to hardly pay the least attention to anything she ever talks about.  She’s a girl what I think about her the less people pay any ’tention to what she says the better off they are.”

“That’s the way with me, Henry,” his partner assured him earnestly.  “I never pay any notice to what she says.  The way I figure it out about her, Henry, everybody’d be a good deal better off if nobody ever paid the least notice to anything she says.  I never even notice what she says, myself.”

“I don’t either,” said Henry.  “All I think about is what my father and mother say, because I’m not goin’ to have their advice all the rest o’ my life, after they’re dead.  If they want me to be polite, why, I’ll do it and that’s all there is about it.”

“It’s the same way with me, Henry.  If she comes flappin’ around here blattin’ and blubbin’ how she’s goin’ to have somep’n to do with our newspaper, why, the only reason I’d ever let her would be because my family say I ought to show more politeness to her than up to now.  I wouldn’t do it on any other account, Henry.”

“Neither would I. That’s just the same way I look at it, Herbert.  If I ever begin to treat her any better, she’s got my father and mother to thank, not me.  That’s the only reason I’d be willing to say we better leave the plank down and let her in, if she comes around here like she’s liable to.”

“Well,” said Herbert. “I’m willing.  I don’t want to get in trouble with the family.”

And they mounted the stairs to their editorial, reportorial, and printing rooms; and began to work in a manner not only preoccupied but apprehensive.  At intervals they would give each other a furtive glance, and then seem to reflect upon their fathers’ and mothers’ wishes and the troublous state of the times.  Florence did not keep them waiting long, however.