"What?"
"We have no intention of marrying next year or at any other time."
"Well, of all the——! Curtis Janney doesn't know this."
"He should. Gretchen is in love with somebody else, and I——"
"You! I understand. You are, too. You're in love with Jeff Wray's wife."
He paused, but his son made no reply, though the old man watched his face curiously for a sign. The General knocked his cigar-ash into the fire.
"Is that true?"
"Under the circumstances I should prefer not to discuss the matter."
"Why? You and I haven't always been in sympathy, but the fact remains that I'm your father." The old man's long fingers clutched the chair arm, and he looked straight before him, speaking slowly. "I suppose you've got to have your fling. I did. Every man does. But you're almost old enough to be through that period now. There was never a woman in the world worth the pains and anxieties of an affair of this kind. A woman who plays loose with one man will do it with another. The fashion of making love to other men's wives did not exist when I was young."
Cortland turned to the fire, his lips compressed, and with the tongs replaced a fallen log.