is house once. The day after Tracy died his
old-maid daughter married the cigarette--and there AIN'T any Tracy bank
any more! And now"--his voice rose again--"and now I got a cigarette
son-in-law!"

Gurney pointed to the flourishing right hand without speaking, and
Sheridan once more returned it to the sling.

"My son-in-law likes Florida this winter," Sheridan went on. "That's
good, and my son-in-law better enjoy it, because I don't think he'll be
there next winter. They got twelve-thousand dollars to spend, and I hear
it can be done in Florida by rich sons-in-law. When Roscoe's woman got
me to spend that much on a porch for their new house, Edith wouldn't
give me a minute's rest till I turned over the same to her. And she's
got it, besides what I gave her to go East on. It'll be gone long before
this time next year, and when she comes home and leaves the cigarette
behind--for good--she'll get some more. MY name ain't Tracy, and there
ain't goin' to be any Tracy business in the Sheridan family. And there
ain't goin' to be any college foundin' and endowin' and trusteein',
nor God-knows-what to keep my property alive when I'm gone! Edith'll
be back, and she'll get a girl's share when she's through with that
cigarette, but--"

"By the way," interposed Gurney, "didn't Mrs. Sheridan tell me that
Bibbs warned you Edith would marry Lamhorn in New York?"

Sheridan went completely to pieces: he swore, while his wife screamed
and stopped her ears. And as he swore he pounded the table with his
wounded hand, and when the doctor, after storming at him ineffectively,
sprang to catch and protect that hand, Sheridan wrenched it away,
tearing the bandage. He hammered the table till it leaped.

"Fool!" he panted, choking. "If he's shown gumption enough to guess
right the first time in his life, it's enough for me to begin learnin'
him on!" And, struggling with the doctor, he leaned toward Bibbs,
thrusting forward his convulsed face, which was deathly pale. "My name
ain't Tracy, I tell you!" he screamed, hoarsely. "You give in, you
stubborn fool! I've had my way with you before, and I'll have my way
with you now!"

Bibbs's face was as white as his father's, but he kept remembering that
"splendid look" of Mary's which he had told her would give him courage
in a struggle, so that he would "never give up."

"No. You can't have your way," he said. And then, obeying a significant
motion of Gurney's head, he went out quickly, leaving t