in the direction of the nearest telephone, but she said
over her shoulder:

"Oh, well, I think you did pretty well for yourself when you chose Mama."

She left him sipping his black coffee; he took every drop of that.

When he had finished he did not go back to his study, but to the
drawing-room, where he sat down in a large chair by the fire. He lit a
cigar. It was a quiet hour in the house, and he might have been supposed
to be a man entirely at peace.

Mr. Lanley, coming in about an hour later, certainly imagined he was
rousing an invalid from a refreshing rest. He tried to retreat, but found
Vincent's black eyes were on him.

"I'm sorry to disturb you," he said. "Just wanted to see Adelaide."

"Adelaide has a headache."

Life was taking so many wrong turnings that Mr. Lanley had grown
apprehensive. He suddenly remembered how many headaches Adelaide had had
just before he knew of her troubles with Severance.

"A headache?" he said nervously.

"Nothing serious." Vincent looked more closely at his father-in-law. "You
yourself don't look just the thing, sir."

Mr. Lanley sat down more limply than was his custom.

"I'm getting to an age," he said, "when I can't stand scenes. We had
something of a scene here yesterday afternoon. God bless my soul! though,
I believe Adelaide told me not to mention it to you."

"Adelaide is very considerate," replied her husband. His extreme
susceptibility to sorrow made Mr. Lanley notice a tone which ordinarily
would have escaped him, and he looked up so sharply that Farron was
forced to add quickly: "But you haven't made a break. I know about what
took place."

The egotism of suffering, the distorted vision of a sleepless night, made
Mr. Lanley blurt out suddenly:

"I want to ask you, Vincent, do you think I could have done anything
different?"

Now, none of the accounts which Farron had received had made any mention
of Mr. Lanley's part in the proceedings at all, and so he paused a
moment, and in that pause Mr. Lanley went on:

"It's a difficult position--before a boy's mother. There isn't anything
against him, of course. One's reasons for not wanting the marriage do
sound a little snobbish when one says them--right out. In fact, I suppose
they are snobbish. Do you find it hard to get away from early prejudices,
Vincent? I do. I think Adelaide is quite right; and yet the boy is a nice
boy. What do you think of him?"

"I have taken him into my office."

Mr. Lanley w