Anna Barklay was
goin' to be there.... Now I had pretty hard sleddin' when I was your
age; I've kind of liked to see you enjoy yourself. But Mirabelle--Now
I said before, I ain't on _her_ side, and I ain't on _your_ side; I
had the thing out with you once or twice already, and I guess you
know what my angles are. Only if Mirabelle's got any grounds, maybe I
ought to say it over again.... You been out of college four years now,
and you tried the automobile business for two months and the bond
business for two weeks and the real-estate business for two minutes,
and there you quit. You spent five, six thousand a year and _that_ was
all right, but I admit I don't like the idea of your gettin' married
on nothin' but prospects, specially when _I_'m all the prospects there
is. Sound fair to you?"

Henry nodded, with much repression, "You couldn't be unfair if you
tried, Uncle John."

"Well, you was always open to reason, even when you was in
kindergarten.... Now, in some ways I don't approve of you any more'n
Mirabelle does, but she wants me to go too blamed far. She wants me to
turn you loose the way my father did me. She wants me to say if you
should ever marry without my consent I'll cut you out of my will. But
that's old stuff. That's cold turkey. Mirabelle don't know times have
changed--she's so busy with that cussed Reform League of hers, she
don't have time to reform any of her own slants about things." He
rolled his cigar under his tongue.

"Well, I'm goin' to compromise. Before you get involved too deep, I
want you to know what's in my mind. I don't believe it's the best
thing for either of us for me to go on bein' a kind of an evergreen
money-bush. And a man that's earnin' his own livin' don't have to ask
odds of anybody. Don't you think you better bundle up your courage and
get to work, Henry?"

Henry was twiddling his watch-chain. "It hasn't been a matter of
_courage_, exactly--"

"Oh, I know _that_. I don't believe you're _scared_ of work; you're
only sort of shy about it. I never saw you really afraid of more'n
three things--bein' a spoil-sport, or out of style, or havin' a waiter
think you're stingy. No, you ain't _afraid_ of work, but you never
been properly introduced, so you're kind of standoffish about it. I've
always kind of hoped you'd take a tip from Bob Standish--_there's_
one of your own breed that knows where the durable satisfactions of
life are. Just as good family's yours; just as much money;