"Look here," he replied, "I'm going to do the straight thing by Andrew. I don't know that I've ever loved him as much as I ought, but that's all the more reason why I shouldn't chisel him now."
"Oh, that's your military idea of discipline and all the rest of it; but let me tell you, falling in love is a different kind of thing from forming fours."
For the first time the young soldier clearly disapproved of his father's rejuvenation.
"Duty is duty," he persisted, "and I tell you honestly I'm not going to sneak in behind my brother's back."
"Is Ellen to have nothing to say in the matter? Do you propose to marry her to the man she doesn't love, instead of the man she does, without so much as giving her the choice?"
The soldier met this flank attack by a change of front.
"But Andrew has the means to marry her, and I've not."
"I'll give you the means," said his father.
Frank began to realize that Duty was in a very tight corner.
"But I haven't any grounds whatever for thinking that Ellen cares for me."