"Think what it would mean, dear! Your family preserved, and a brand snatched from the burning!"
"That's just it. It's all right savin' the family. Any cove'll do that at a pinch. But I do not see myself as a 'brand-snatcher' Besides, I am not ALTOGETHER at liberty."
"What?" cried his mother.
"Oh, I've not COMMITTED myself to anything. But I've been three times to hear that wonderful woman speak—once on the PLATFORM! And people are beginning to talk. She thinks no end of me. Sent me a whole lot of stuff last week—'ADVANCED LITERATURE' she calls it. I've got 'em all upstairs. Wrote every word of 'em herself. Never saw a woman who can TALK and WRITE as she can. And OUTSIDE of all that I'm afraid I've more or less ENCOURAGED her. And there you are—the whole thing in a nutshell."
"It would unite our blood, Alaric," the fond mother insisted.
"Oh, hang our blood! I beg your pardon, mater, but really I can't make our blood the FIRST thing."
"It would settle you for life, dear," she suggested after a pause.
"I'd certainly be settled all right," in a despairing tone.
"Think what it would mean, Alaric."
"I am, mater. I'm thinking—and thinking awfully hard. Now, just a moment. Don't let either of us talk. Just let us think. I know how much is at stake for the family, and YOU realise how much is at stake for ME, don't you?"