t at all
definite yet--in fact, I don't think I can even outline it to you
yet. But I'm sure it will suit you--that is, if I decide to go on with
it--and there ought to be seven or eight hundred a year for you in
it--for life, mind you."

The General's gaze, fastened strenuously upon Thorpe, shook a little.
"That will suit me very well," he declared, with feeling. "Whatever
I can do for it"--he let the sentence end itself with a significant
gesture.

"I thought so," commented the other, trifling with the spoon in his cup.
"But I want you to be open with me. I'm interested in you, and I want to
be of use to you. All that I've said, I can do for you. But first,
I'm curious to know everything that you can tell me about your
circumstances. I'm right in assuming, I suppose, that you're--that
you're not any too well-fixed."

The General helped himself to another little glass of brandy. His mood
seemed to absorb the spirit of the liqueur. "Fixed!" he repeated with a
peevish snap in his tone. "I'm not 'fixed' at all, as you call it. Good
God, sir! They no more care what becomes of me than they do about
their old gloves. I gave them name and breeding and position--and
everything--and they round on me like--like cuckoos." His pale, bulging
eyes lifted their passionless veil for an instant as he spoke, and
flashed with the predatory fierceness of a hawk.

Intuition helped Thorpe to guess whom "they" might mean. The temper
visibly rising in the old man's mind was what he had hoped for. He
proceeded with an informed caution. "Don't be annoyed if I touch upon
family matters," he said. "It's a part of what I must know, in order to
help you. I believe you're a widower, aren't you, General?"

The other, after a quick upward glance, shook his head resentfully.
"Mrs. Kervick lives in Italy with HER son-in-law--and her daughter.
He is a man of property--and also, apparently, a man of remarkable
credulity and patience." He paused, to scan his companion's face.
"They divide him between them," he said then, from clenched teeth--"and
I--mind you--I made the match! He was a young fellow that I found--and I
brought him home and introduced him--and I haven't so much as an Italian
postage-stamp to show for it. But what interest can you possibly take
in all this?" The unamiable glance of his eyes was on the instant
surcharged with suspicion.

"How many daughters have you?" Thorpe ventured the enquiry with inward
doubts as to its sagacity.