a protracted lunch.

"I say, Delancy, what's this I hear?"

"About what?" said Jack, sauntering along to a seat opposite the Major,
and touching a bell on the little table as he sat down. Jack's face was
flushed, but he talked with unusual slowness and distinctness. "What
have you heard, Major?"

"That you have bought Benham's yacht."

"No, I haven't; but I was turning the thing over in my mind," Jack
replied, with the air of a man declining an appointment in the Cabinet.
"He offers it cheap."

"My dear boy, there is no such thing as a cheap yacht, any more than
there is a cheap elephant."

"It's better to buy than build," Jack insisted. "A man's got to have
some recreation."

"Recreation! Why don't you charter a Fifth Avenue stage and take your
friends on a voyage to the Battery? That'll make 'em sick enough."
It was a misery of the Major's life that, in order to keep in with
necessary friends, he had to accept invitations for cruises on yachts,
and pretend he liked it. Though he had the gout, he vowed he would
rather walk to Newport than go round Point Judith in one of those
tipping tubs. He had tried it, and, as he said afterwards, "The devil of
it was that Mrs. Henderson and Miss Tavish sympathized with me. Gad! it
takes away a person's manhood, that sort of thing."

The Major sipped his bitters, and then added: "Or I'll tell you what;
if you must do something, start a newspaper--the drama, society, and
letters, that sort of thing, with pictures. I heard Miss Tavish say she
wished she had a newspaper."

"But," said Jack, with gravity, "I'm not buying a yacht for Miss
Tavish."

"I didn't suppose you were. Devilish fine girl, though. I don't care who
you buy it for if you don't buy it for yourself. Why don't you buy it
for Henderson? He can afford it."

"I'd like to know what you mean, Major Fairfax!" cried Jack. "What
business--"

"There!" exclaimed the Major, sinking back in his chair, with a softened
expression in his society beaten face. "It's no use of nonsense, Jack.
I'm an average old sinner, and I'm not old enough yet to like a milksop.
But I've known you since you were so high, and I knew your father; he
used to stay weeks on my plantation when we were both younger. And your
mother--that was a woman!--did me a kindness once when I was in a d---d
tight place, and I never forgot it. See here, Jack, if I had money
enough I'd buy a yacht and put Carmen and Miss Tavish on it, and send
them off on