d to, but Ben Moreton. He's waiting downstairs
now."

Mr. Cord started up--his eyes shining like black flames.

"By God! Crystal," he said, "you sha'n't marry that
fellow--Eugenia--perhaps--but not you."

"But, father, you said yourself, you thought he was a fine--"

"I don't care what I said," replied Mr. Cord, and, striding to the
door, he flung it open and called in a voice that rolled about the
stone hall: "Mr. Moreton, Mr. Moreton! Come up here, will you?"

Ben came bounding up the stairs like a panther. Cord beckoned him in
with a sharp gesture and shut the door.

"This won't do at all, Moreton," he said. "You can't have Crystal."

Ben did not answer; he looked very steadily at Cord, who went on:

"You think I can't stop it--that she's of age and that you wouldn't
take a penny of my money, anyhow. That's the idea, isn't it?"

"That's it," said Ben.

Cord turned sharply to Crystal. "Does what I think make any difference
to you?" he asked.

"A lot, dear," she answered, "but I don't understand. You never seemed
so much opposed to the radical doctrine."

"No, it's the radical, not the doctrine, your father objects to," said
Ben.

"Exactly," answered Mr. Cord. "You've put it in a nutshell. Crystal,
I'm going to tell you what these radicals really are--they're
failures--everyone of them. Sincere enough--they want the world
changed because they haven't been able to get along in it as it
is--they want a new deal because they don't know how to play their
cards; and when they get a new hand, they'll play it just as badly.
It's not their theories I object to, but them themselves. You think if
you married Moreton you'd be going into a great new world of idealism.
You wouldn't. You'd be going into a world of failure--of the pettiest,
most futile quarrels in the world. The chief characteristic of the man
who fails is that he always believes it's the other fellow's fault;
and they hate the man who differs with them by one per cent more than
they hate the man who differs by one hundred. Has there ever been a
revolution where they did not persecute their fellow revolutionists
worse than they persecuted the old order, or where the new rule wasn't
more tyrannical than the old?"

"No one would dispute that," said Ben. "It is the only way to win
through to--"

"Ah," said Cord, "I know what you're going to say, but I tell you,
you win through to liberal practices when, and only when, the
conservatives become convert