lled by a colt he was breaking at sixty-seven."

Charlton laughed uproariously. "If you took walks and rides instead of
always sitting round, you never would die," said he. "But you're like
lots of women I know. You'd rather die than take exercise. Still,
I've got you to stop that eating that was keeping you on the verge all
the time."

"You're trying to starve me to death," grumbled Hastings.

"Don't you feel better, now that you've got used to it and don't feel
hungry?"

"But I'm not getting any nourishment."

"How would eating help you? You can't digest any more than what I'm
allowing you. Do you think you were better off when you were full of
rotting food? I guess not."

"Well--I'm doing as you say," said the old man resignedly.

"And if you keep it up for a year, I'll put you on a horse. If you
don't keep it up, you'll find yourself in a hearse."

Jane stood silently by, listening with a feeling of depression which
she could not have accounted for, if she would--and would not if she
could. Not that she wished her father to die; simply that Charlton's
confidence in his long life forced her to face the only
alternative--bringing him round to accept Victor Dorn.

At her father's next remark she began to listen with a high beating
heart. He said to Charlton:

"How about that there friend of yours--that young Dorn? You ain't
talked about him to-day as much as usual."

"The last time we talked about him we quarreled," said Charlton. "It's
irritating to see a man of your intelligence a slave to silly
prejudices."

"I like Victor Dorn," replied Hastings in a most conciliatory tone. "I
think he's a fine young man. Didn't I have him up here at my house not
long ago? Jane'll tell you that I like him. She likes him, too. But
the trouble with him--and with you, too--is that you're dreaming all
the time. You don't recognize facts. And, so, you make a lot of
trouble for us conservative men."

"Please don't use that word conservative," said Charlton. "It gags me
to hear it. YOU'RE not a conservative. If you had been you'd still be
a farm hand. You've been a radical all your life--changing things
round and round, always according to your idea of what was to your
advantage. The only difference between radicals like you robber
financiers and radicals like Victor and me is that our ideas of what's
to our advantage differ. To you life means money; to us it means
health and comfort and happiness.