The old doctor was very well known at the club as a gossip, so Templeton only laughed carelessly as he said:
"What's the matter, doctor? Any of my sweethearts sick or dead?"
"Not that I know of," said Doctor Shirley. "However, Templeton, if any of your sweethearts has money, take my advice, young fellow, and make up to her without delay."
Howard Templeton laughed at the doctor's sage advice.
"Thanks," he said, "but I do very well as I am, doctor. I don't care to become a subject for petticoat government, yet."
"Yet things looked that way two years ago," said Doctor Shirley, maliciously, for Templeton's ardent devotion to Mrs. Egerton's lovely debutante at that time had been no secret in society.
Templeton's blonde face flushed a dark red all over, yet he laughed carelessly.
"Oh, yes, I had the fever," he said. "However, its severity then precludes the danger of ever having a second attack. How little I dreamed that she would be my aunt."
"Or your bete noire," said the doctor.
"Hardly that," said Templeton, composedly, as he knocked the ashes from the end of his cigar. "True, she has taken a slice of my fortune away, but then there's yet enough to butter my bread."