ut I should
have to lock Arthur Wilde in the basement whenever professors came to
dinner. I couldn't marry Arthur's vocabulary, mother,--I couldn't!"

"He is a wonderful son, and a millionaire; he has three houses, four
motors, and a steam yacht!"

"Sure, but that don't 'enthuse me,' 'tremenjous' as it sounds! (I am
imitating Mr. Wilde's style of conversation.) And as for Lee Wadsworth
he is bow-legged!"

"Lee's reputation is straight at any rate, and his income all that
could be desired," responded Mrs. Valentine loftily. "I wish I could
convince you, Dorothea, that there are no perfect husbands. You are
looking for the impossible! Indeed, I have always found men singularly
imperfect, even as friends and companions, and in a more intimate
relation they leave still more to be desired. You dismissed Sir Thomas
Scott because he was too dictatorial, although you knew he intended to
have the family diamonds reset for you."

"He'd have had them reset in Sheffield or Birmingham, but, anyhow, one
doesn't marry diamonds, mother."

"One might at least make the effort, Dorothea! I notice that most of
the people who disdain diamonds generally possess three garnets, two
amethysts, and one Mexican opal."

Dolly laughed. "You know I did emulate the celebrated Mrs. Dombey,
mother."

"I know you made a very brief and feeble effort to be sensible, and
you might have conquered yourself had it not been for the sudden
appearance of this young Hogg on your horizon."

"You shall not call him a young Hogg!" cried Dolly passionately. "It
isn't fair; I won't endure it!"

"I thought that was his name," remarked Mrs. Valentine, placidly
shifting a wrinkle-plaster from one place to another. "You wouldn't
object if I had alluded to young Benham or young Wadsworth. You show
by your very excitement how disagreeable his name is to your ears. It
isn't a question of argument; Marmaduke Hogg is an outrageous,
offensive name; if he had been Charles or James it would have been
more decent. The 'Marmaduke' simply calls attention to the 'Hogg.' If
any one had asked to introduce a person named Hogg to me I should have
declined."

"I've told you a dozen times, mother, that the Wilmots' house-party
was at breakfast when I arrived from the night train. There was a
perfect Babel and everybody was calling him 'Duke.' He looked like
one, and nobody said--the other. I didn't even hear his last name till
evening, and then it was too late."

"'Too late