Kindly designate by a verbal "Yes" or "No" to the bearer whether
you accept or decline. The messenger is a stranger to the person
making the offer and the contents of this communication are unknown
to him. If you wish to avail yourself of this gift, the amount will
be paid in cash immediately, and it is suggested that you refrain
from mentioning the matter to your granddaughter in any way.
Professor Kelton had given his answer to the messenger unhesitatingly,
and the trouble reflected in his dark eyes was not due, we may assume,
to any regret for his negative reply, but to the jangling of old, harsh
chords of memory. He crossed and recrossed the room, lost in reverie;
then paused at his desk and tore the letter once across with the evident
intention of destroying it; but he hesitated, changed his mind, and
carried it to his bedroom. There he took from a closet shelf a battered
tin box marked "A. Kelton, U.S.N." which contained his commissions in
the Navy. He sat down on the bed, folded the letter the long way of the
sheet and indorsed it in pencil: "Declined." Then he slipped it under
the faded tape that bound the official papers together, and locked and
replaced the box.
Sylvia meanwhile had found the review article noted on her grandfather's
memorandum, and leaving a receipt with the librarian started home with
the book under her arm.
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