"You can do that certainly, but—"
"Sir?"
"Have you spoken to your mother yet?"
"Not yet. I will to-night."
"I think she'll be a little angry, Fred." There was a sudden tone of subdued confidence in the old man's voice as he made this suggestion, which, though it was by no means a customary tone, his son well understood. "Don't you think she will be;—eh, a little?"
"She shouldn't go on as she does with me about Clara," said the Captain.
"Ah,—I supposed there was something of that. Are you drinking port?"
"Of course I know that she means all that is good," said the son, passing back the bottle.
"Oh yes;—she means all that is good."
"She is the best mother in the world."