s, and I am afraid that you will wake him."

"I am sorry, my dear, very sorry, but there are some insults that no man
with self-respect can submit to, even from a son."

"Insults! insults!" Mary repeated, opening her blue eyes; then, looking
at him with a pained air: "Morris, why do you insult your father?"

"Insult?" he replied. "Then I will tell you how. My father wanted to
take you to play with him at Monte Carlo this afternoon and I said that
you shouldn't go. That's the insult."

"You observe, my dear," broke in the Colonel, "that already he treats
you as one having authority."

"Yes," said Mary, "and why shouldn't he? Now that my father is so weak
who am I to obey if not Morris?"

"Oh, well, well," said the Colonel, diplomatically beginning to cool,
for he could control his temper when he liked. "Everyone to their taste;
but some matters are so delicate that I prefer not to discuss them," and
he looked round for his hat.

By this time, however, the cyclonic condition of things had affected
Mary also, and she determined that he should not escape so easily.

"Before you go," she went on in her slow voice, "I should like to say,
uncle, that I quite agree with Morris. I don't think those tables are
quite the place to take young ladies to, especially if the gentleman
with them is much engaged in play."

"Indeed, indeed; then you are both of a mind, which is quite as it
should be. Of course, too, upon such matters of conduct and etiquette we
must all bow to the taste and the experience of the young--even those of
us who have mixed with the world for forty years. Might I ask, my dear
Mary, if you have any further word of advice for me before I go?"

"Yes, uncle," replied Mary quite calmly. "I advise you not to lose so
much of--of your money, or to sit up so late at night, which, you
know, never agrees with you. Also, I wish you wouldn't abuse Morris for
nothing, because he doesn't deserve it, and I don't like it; and if we
are all to live together after I am married, it will be so much more
comfortable if we can come to an understanding first."

Then muttering something beneath his breath about ladies in general and
this young lady in particular, the Colonel departed with speed.

Mary sat down in an armchair, and fanned herself with a
pocket-handkerchief.

"Thinking of the right thing to say always makes me hot," she remarked.

"Well, if by the right thing you mean the strong thing, you certainly
discover