as
large estates in one of the healthiest and most beautiful parts; he has
a palace, and more money than he knows what to do with--but it seems
that he's not my son-in-law. I could do with Italy very well--but that
doesn't enter into anyone's calculations. No! let the worn-out old
soldier sell boot-laces on the kerb! That's the spirit of woman-kind.
And my daughter Edith--does she care what becomes of me? Listen to me--I
secured for her the very greatest marriage in England. She would have
been Duchess of Glastonbury today if her husband had not played the fool
and drowned himself."

"What's that you say?" put in Thorpe, swiftly.

"It was as good as suicide," insisted the General, with doggedness. His
face had become a deeper red. "They didn't hit it off together, and
he left in a huff, and went yachting with his father, who was his own
sailing-master--and, as might be expected, they were both drowned. The
title would have gone to her son--but no, of course, she had no son--and
so it passed to a stranger--an outsider that had been an usher in a
school, or something of that sort. You can fancy what a blow this was to
me. Instead of being the grandfather of a Duke, I have a childless widow
thrust back upon my hands! Fine luck, eh? And then, to cap all, she
takes her six hundred a year and goes off by herself, and gives me the
cold shoulder completely. What is it Shakespeare says? 'How sharper than
a serpent's teeth'----"

Thorpe brought his fist down upon the table with an emphasis which
abruptly broke the quotation in half. He had been frowning moodily
at his guest for some minutes, relighting his cigar more than once
meanwhile. He had made a mental calculation of what the old man had had
to drink, and had reassured himself as to his condition. His garrulity
might have an alcoholic basis, but his wits were clear enough. It was
time to take a new line with him.

"I don't want to hear you abuse your daughter," he admonished him now,
with a purpose glowing steadily in his firm glance. "Damn it all, why
shouldn't she go off by herself, and take care of her own money her
own way? It's little enough, God knows, for such a lady as she is. Why
should you expect her to support you out of it? No--sit still! Listen to
me!"--he stretched out his hand, and laid it with restraining heaviness
upon the General's arm--"you don't want to have any row with me.
You can't afford it. Just think that over to yourself--you--can't
afford--i