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not exist. I have been trying to take the load off his shoulders so that he could
ease up a bit, but he has got into a rut from which he cannot be guided.
"
He will simply have to be lifted completely out of it, or he will stay here and die in
the harness. Everything is running splendidly, and now that I have a good grasp
of the business I can handle it. Don't you suppose you could persuade him to
take a trip? I know that he wants to travel. He has told me so several times, and if
he could get away from here this fall and stay away for a year, if possible, it would
make a new man of him. I am really very much worried about him, and while I
hate to worry you I feel that you are the only person who can influence him and
that something ought to be done and done at once."
"Why, Harold," exclaimed the girl, "there is nothing the matter with father! He was
never better in his life nor more cheerful."
"
That's the side of him that he lets you see," replied the man. "His gaiety is all
forced. If you could see him after you leave you would realize that he is on the
verge of a nervous breakdown. Your father is not an old man in years, but he has
placed a constant surtax on his nervous system for the last twenty-five years
without a let-up, and it doesn't make any difference how good a machine may be
it is going to wear out some day, and the better the machine the more complete
will be the wreck when the final break occurs."
As he spoke he watched the girl's face, the changing expression of it, which
marked her growing mental perturbation.
"You really believe it is as bad as that, Harold?" she asked.
"It may be worse than I think," he said. "It is surely fully as bad."
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