family dinner at the
Mansion every Sunday evening. She knew how to flirt with old people, he
said, as she sat next him at the table on one of these Sunday occasions;
and he had always liked her father, even when Eugene was a "terror" long
ago. "Oh, yes, he was!" the Major laughed, when she remonstrated. "He
came up here with my son George and some others for a serenade one
night, and Eugene stepped into a bass fiddle, and the poor musicians
just gave up! I had a pretty half-hour getting my son George upstairs.
I remember! It was the last time Eugene ever touched a drop--but he'd
touched plenty before that, young lady, and he daren't deny it! Well,
well; there's another thing that's changed: hardly anybody drinks
nowadays. Perhaps it's just as well, but things used to be livelier.
That serenade was just before Isabel was married--and don't you fret,
Miss Lucy: your father remembers it well enough!" The old gentleman
burst into laughter, and shook his finger at Eugene across the table.
"The fact is," the Major went on hilariously, "I believe if Eugene
hadn't broken that bass fiddle and given himself away, Isabel would
never have taken Wilbur! I shouldn't be surprised if that was about all
the reason that Wilbur got her! What do you think. Wilbur?"

"I shouldn't be surprised," said Wilbur placidly. "If your notion is
right, I'm glad 'Gene broke the fiddle. He was giving me a hard run!"

The Major always drank three glasses of champagne at his Sunday dinner,
and he was finishing the third. "What do you say about it, Isabel? By
Jove!" he cried, pounding the table. "She's blushing!"

Isabel did blush, but she laughed. "Who wouldn't blush!" she cried, and
her sister-in-law came to her assistance.

"The important thing," said Fanny jovially, "is that Wilbur did get her,
and not only got her, but kept her!"

Eugene was as pink as Isabel, but he laughed without any sign of
embarrassment other than his heightened colour. "There's another
important thing--that is, for me," he said. "It's the only thing that
makes me forgive that bass viol for getting in my way."

"What is it?" the Major asked.

"Lucy," said Morgan gently.

Isabel gave him a quick glance, all warm approval, and there was a
murmur of friendliness round the table.

George was not one of those who joined in this applause. He considered
his grandfather's nonsense indelicate, even for second childhood, and he
thought that the sooner the subject was dropped the