The doctor laughed. "The explosion was fully up to the claims of the prospectus."
"There's another matter that I am still somewhat in doubt about," said Burton seriously. "That's Selby's death. I said to Miss Underwood yesterday that I hoped Henry wouldn't shoot Selby when he heard of his engagement to Miss Hadley. I am fairly certain that Mrs. Bussey heard me and repeated the remark to Ben. Also, it seems that I precipitated a quarrel between Ben and Selby about the price of his work. Taking these things together, how far am I responsible for Selby's death?"
The doctor turned to look at him questioningly. "Don't blame yourself for things you only touch at that distance," he said abruptly. "If the little gods use us as instruments to carry out their plans, we have to take that lot with the rest. Perhaps there is justice in their schemes. We all have to take our chances in this skirmishing that we call life,--and death isn't the worst that might happen."
The doctor continued to observe him scrutinizingly, but he spoke lightly. "Henry gave me a bad quarter of an hour last night," he said, wrinkling his face in his old, funny grimace. "When I found he had disappeared I thought for a while that my worst nightmares of these past years had come true. That brilliant watch of Watson's didn't even know he was gone. The boy may be--well, a problem, but no one ever suggested he didn't have spirit enough to climb a tree."
"He will be all right after this. He has been worried by the surrounding atmosphere of suspicion into appearing as a problem, that's all. If that little fool--I beg a thousand pardons. That isn't what I was going to talk about. I intended to say that if your new daughter-in-law, who is a very beautiful girl with a sweet nature, will only praise him enough,--and I think that is likely to be her role,--he will probably be not only happy but good. The poor boy needs coddling."
The doctor listened with the glimmer of a smile under his seriousness.
"We all do. It is the great human need." He twisted his face up inscrutably as he added: "I hope you will get your share."
"Thank you," said Burton. His heart sank suddenly. He hadn't wanted to be reminded of his own needs. "Am I to see Miss Underwood this morning?" he asked, facing the inevitable.