r. If she'd done
much drinking, I'd have been done, then and there."

"I suspect she's upset by what you've been saying, General," said
Presbury. "Wasn't it enough to upset a girl? You don't realize how
magnificent you are--how magnificent everything is here."

"I'm sorry if I upset her," said the general, swelling and loftily
contrite. "I don t know why it is that people never seem to be able to
act natural with me." He hated those who did, regarding them as
sodden, unappreciative fools.

Mrs. Presbury was quieting her daughter. Presbury and Siddall lighted
cigars and went into the smoking--and billiard-room across the hall.
Said Presbury:

"I didn't deceive you, did I, General?"

"She's entirely satisfactory," replied Siddall. "I'm going to make
careful inquiries about her character and her health. If those things
prove to be all right I'm ready to go ahead."

"Then the thing's settled," said Presbury. "She's all that a lady
should be. And except a cold now and then she never has anything the
matter with her. She comes of good healthy stock."

"I can't stand a sickly, ailing woman," said Siddall. "I wouldn't marry
one, and if one I married turned out to be that kind, I'd make short
work of her. When you get right down to facts, what is a woman? Why,
a body. If she ain't pretty and well, she ain't nothing. While I'm
looking up her pedigree, so to speak, I want you to get her mother to
explain to her just what kind of a man I am."

"Certainly, certainly," said Presbury.

"Have her told that I don't put up with foolishness. If she wants to
look at a man, let her look at me."

"You'll have no trouble in that way," said Presbury.

"I DID have trouble in that way," replied the general sourly. "Women
are fools--ALL women. But the principal trouble with the second Mrs.
Siddall was that she wasn't a lady born."

"That's why I say you'll have no trouble," said Presbury.

"Well, I want her mother to talk to her plainer than a gentleman can
talk to a young lady. I want her to understand that I am marrying so
that I can have a WIFE--cheerful, ready, and healthy. I'll not put up
with foolishness of any kind."

"I understand," said Presbury. "You'll find that she'll meet all your
conditions."

"Explain to her that, while I'm the easiest, most liberal-spending man
in the world when I'm getting what I want, I am just the opposite when
I'm not getting what I pay for. If I take her and if she acts