"How is Sophie?" I said.

"Very well. I saw her yesterday. I went to put Charley in College for her."

"I can't think of Charley as a young man."

"Yes, Charley is a strapping fellow, within two inches of my height."

"Impossible! And where is Benny?"

"At school here in town. His mother will not let him go to boarding-school. He is a nice boy: I think there's more in him than Charley."

"And I hear Kilian is married!"

"Yes. Kilian is married--the very day you landed, too."

"Well," I said, with a little dash of temper, "I'm very sorry for you all. I did not think Kilian was going to be so foolish."

"He thinks he's very wise, though, all the same," said Richard, with a smile, which turned into a sigh before he had done speaking.