eclined going down to dinner; but ordering
some choicely cooked birds and a bottle of champagne in his own room,
amused his rather fastidious appetite with these delicacies, while he
luxuriated in his dressing-gown, and read snatches from a new book of
poems that had interested him for the moment.

This rather pleasant occupation wiled away an hour, when he was
interrupted by a knock at the door. Lifting his eyes from the book, the
General said, "Come in," rather hastily, for the knock had broken into
one of the finest passages of the poem, and General Harrington detested
interruptions of any kind, either in a mental or sensual enjoyment.

"Come in!"

The General was a good deal astonished when his son Ralph opened the
door, and stood before him with an air of awkward constraint, that
would certainly have secured him a reprimand had he not been the first
to speak.

"Father!"

General Harrington gave an impatient wave of the hand.

"Young gentleman," he said, "how often am I to remind you that the use
of the paternal title after childhood is offensive. Can't you call me
General Harrington, sir, as other people do? A handsome young fellow six
feet high should learn to forget the nursery. Sit down, sir, sit down
and converse like a gentleman, if you have anything to say."

The blood rose warmly in Ralph's face, not that he was angry or
surprised, but it seemed impossible to open his warm heart to the man
before him.

"Well then, General," he said, with a troubled smile, "I--I've been
getting into--into----"

"Not into debt, I trust," said the General, folding the skirts of the
Turkish dressing-gown over his knees, and smoothing the silken fabric
with his hand, but speaking with a degree of genuine bitterness,
"because, if that's it, you had better go to James at once--he is the
millionaire. I am not much better than his pensioner myself!"

"It is not that," answered Ralph, with an effort which sent the blood
crimsoning to his temples, "though money may have something to do with
it in time. The truth is, General, I have been in love with Lina all my
life, and never found it out till yesterday."

General Harrington gave the youth a look from under his bent brows, that
made the young man shrink back in his chair, but in a moment the
unpleasant expression went off, and a quiet smile stole over the old
man's lip.

"Oh, you will get over that, Ralph. It isn't worth being angry about. Of
course, you will get over