"Here's a nice business!" he said, disgusted.
Smith looked up indifferently. "Well, what is it?" he asked, and then, seeing the expression on his friend's face, added: "Oh, I'll bet I know!"
"This," said Kingsbury, paying him no attention, "is simply sickening."
"A young life bartered for a coronet?" inquired Smith, blandly.
"Yes. Isn't it shameful? What on earth are our women thinking of? Are you aware, Smith, that over ninety-seven and three tenths per cent of such marriages are unhappy? Are you? Why, I could sit here and give you statistics——"
"Don't, all the same."
"Statistics that would shock even you. And I say solemnly, that I, as an American, as a humanitarian, as a student of social economics——"
"Help! Help!" complained Smith, addressing the butter.
"Social economics," repeated the other, firmly, "as a patriot, a man, and a future father, I am astounded at the women of my native land! Race suicide is not alone what menaces us; it is the exportation of our finest and most vigorous stock to upbuild a bloodless and alien aristocracy at our expense."