“I have tried,” said Melton, quietly, “but it is hopeless now.”
“Why?”
“Her ladyship never lets your sister go out of her sight.”
“Then make a bolt of it, Charley.”
“You proposed that before. Oh, undutiful son.”
“There, don’t talk like a Turk,” said Tom.
“I feel like one, Bismillah! It is Kismet,” said Charley Melton, grimly.
“Fate’s what a man makes himself.”
“Yes, but you can’t make bricks without straw. O! my Diphoos,” said the other, mockingly, “I have so little golden straw that her ladyship refuses to let me make bricks at all, and—There, let the matter slide, old man.”
“By George!” cried Tom, savagely. “And this is my old friend Charley Melton! Where’s your spirit?”