"It's that Socialist thing! As for what you propose, I simply will not have it!"
"No? I could have started in up at Columbia, and kept it from you. But I wanted to be all on the level—"
"I won't have it!"
"You really mean that you are not going to add a few thousand more to my hundred thousands' worth of education?"
"I certainly shall not!"
"Then," said Jack regretfully, "I suppose after all I've got to start in at the pick-and-shovel end."
"No, you will not! I have reared you to be a gentleman! And you are going to be a gentleman!"
"Well, if that's the way you feel about it," he sighed, "we'll drop the matter—temporarily."
"We'll drop it permanently!" said Mrs. De Peyster decisively. "Besides, all this talk is utterly footless. You seem to forget that you are sailing with me to Europe to-morrow."
"That brings me to the second point. I was hoping," Jack said mildly, "that you would consent to take my regrets to Europe. Don't you think Europe might be willing to overlook my negligence—just this once?"