e worst of it--and got my answer
before this came out."

"Jack!" said Mrs. Ashwood, thoroughly surprised.

"Yes! You see, Conny, as I told you three weeks ago, she said she wanted
time to consider,--that she scarcely knew me, and all that! Well, I
thought it wasn't exactly a gentleman's business to seem to stand off
after that last attack on her father, and so, last week, I went down
to San Jose, where she was staying, and begged her not to keep me in
suspense. And, by Jove! she froze me with a look, and said that with
these aspersions on her father's character, she preferred not to be
under obligations to any one."

"And you believed her?"

"Oh, hang it all! Look here, Conny,--I wish you'd just try for once to
find out some good in that family, besides what that sentimental
young widower John Milton may have. You seem to think because they've
quarreled with HIM there isn't a virtue left among them."

Far from seeming to offer any suggestion of feminine retaliation, Mrs.
Ashwood smiled sweetly. "My dear Jack, I have no desire to keep you from
trying your luck again with Miss Clementina, if that's what you mean,
and indeed I shouldn't be surprised if a family who felt a mesalliance
as sensitively as the Harcourts felt that affair of their son's, would
be as keenly alive to the advantages of a good match for their daughter.
As to young Mr. Harcourt, he never talked to me of the vices of his
family, nor has he lately troubled me much with the presence of his own
virtues. I haven't heard from him since we came here."

"I suppose he is satisfied with the government berth you got for him,"
returned her brother dryly.

"He was very grateful to Senator Flynn, who appreciates his talents,
but who offered it to him as a mere question of fitness," replied Mrs.
Ashwood with great precision of statement. "But you don't seem to know
he declined it on account of his other work."

"Preferred his old Bohemian ways, eh? You can't change those fellows,
Conny. They can't get over the fascinations of vagabondage. Sorry your
lady-patroness scheme didn't work. Pity you couldn't have promoted him
in the line of his profession, as the Grand Duchess of Girolstein did
Fritz."

"For Heaven's sake, Jack, go to Clementina! You may not be successful,
but there at least the perfect gentlemanliness and good taste of your
illustrations will not be thrown away."

"I think of going to San Francisco tomorrow, anyway," returned Jack with
affect