"I was wrong, I see, about old Cabot."
"Were you?" Forbes mumbled, with a sudden flush at the broaching of that dangerous theme.
"Yes, I said that he was to be closed up, forced into involuntary bankruptcy, and all that."
"Wasn't he?" said Forbes, weakly.
"No, he got money and credit and a new start—from the Enslee estates. There is a rumor that his daughter is to marry Willie Enslee. I thought that perhaps you—did you—did you hear anything of it—from Enslee?"
Tait made an elaborate pretense of indifference and showed a violent interest in the leg of a chicken. Forbes turned curry-color with shame as he answered: "Yes, Enslee announced the engagement himself—the very day I saw you last."
His head drooped as if his neck could no longer hold it up. Tait noted his harrowed look and broke out angrily:
"Don't be cut up, my boy, just because she's fool enough to marry a bigger fool than herself."
"Oh, please!" Forbes protested. He could have struck a younger man in Persis' defense, but he could only appeal to so old a man as Tait. Tait, however, persisted:
"You ought to be glad to be revenged so neatly."