nd with the Kavanagh girl?"

The old man smoked on in the silence without removing his gaze from the
leaves above his head.

"I want to confess to you, my boy, that your old grandfather made rather
a disgraceful exhibition of himself the other day. But as I said then, a
man will thrash and swear at a hornet and make an ass of himself,
generally, in the operation. The impudent little fool didn't realize
what a big matter she was trifling with."

"Grandfather," protested Harlan, manfully, "that's no way to speak of a
young lady. You ask me how I stand? I stand this way--I'll not have the
child mentioned in any such manner--not in my hearing; and that's with
all respect to you, sir."

"Young lady--child? Well, which is she?"

"I don't know," confessed Harlan, ingenuously. "And it doesn't make
much difference."

"Sort of ashamed of me, aren't you?" inquired his grandfather. "A man
that you've seen all the politicians catering to the last day or so, and
small enough to bandy insults with a snippet of a girl! Well, bub,
there's a lot of childishness in human nature. It breaks out once in a
while. Cuss a tack, and grin and bear an amputation! We'll let the girl
alone. I don't seem to get in right when she is mentioned. But I wanted
to have you tell me that you don't intend to marry Dennis Kavanagh's
daughter. You can't afford to do that, boy! Not with your prospects. And
now I'm not saying anything against the girl. We'll leave her out, I
say. It's just that she isn't the kind of a woman--when she gets to be a
woman--that I want to see mated with you." He burst out: "Dammit,
Harlan, I can see where you're going to land in this State if you'll let
your old gramp have free rein! And the right kind of a wife is half the
battle in what you're going into."

"Have you got that right kind picked out for me--along with the rest?
You talk as though you had."

It was said almost in the tone of insult. It might have been the
tone--it might have been that the taunt touched upon the truth:
Thelismer Thornton's face flushed. He did not seem to find reply easy.

"There's only this to say, grandfather. I know you're interested in me
and in seeing me get ahead in the world. You pushed me into politics,
and I'm trying to make good. I'm glad you did it--I'll say that now. I
see opportunities ahead if I stay square and honest. But don't you try
to push me into marriage. I'm going to do my own choosing there. And
that doesn't mean that