Frederic gulped down his coffee and hurried away.
"It will be time," said Mrs. Folyat, "it will be time to think of Annette when Gertrude and Mary and Minna are married."
Serge came down in Frederic's dressing-gown, and shortly afterwards Minna and Gertrude followed him.
"My dear. What do you think? Frederic took me and Jessie to the pantomime last night; I thought it vulgar and most unsuitable for children. And what do you think? Frederic and Jessie are engaged."
"So was Wellington when he found he had won the battle of Waterloo."
Francis gathered up his letters and the daily paper, a Conservative organ, together with the _Church Times_, and turned to Serge.
"If you can give me a moment or two," he said, "I should like your opinion on a matter of some importance."
Five minutes later Serge knocked at the study door, went in, and found his father at his desk writing a letter. Francis laid down his pen and turned.
"I want your opinion as a man of the world. I find myself in a situation with which I am not competent to deal, and yet I must deal with it."
"My experience is," said Serge, "that most problems solve themselves."
"Moral problems crumble away under the pressure of time more easily than any others."
Francis was not encouraged. However, he went on:
"Ah! I thought it must be about Frederic."
"Frederic has proposed to and been accepted by Jessie Clibran-Bell."
"A very estimable young woman, though she has no sense of humour."
"With the daughter of a lodging-house keeper."
"You can imagine then what pain and sorrow this must have caused me."
"Yes. It is always distressing to find fiction overturned by facts."
"It is surely one of the first principles of religion to condemn nobody."
"True. True. But one must not encourage immorality."
"Nothing encourages immorality so much as condemnation and prohibition."
"Is that how men of the world think of it?"
Francis combed his fingers through his beard.
"It seems to me that the difficulty has already solved itself. Miss Clibran-Bell is in love with Frederic. She will probably make him a good wife. Frederic could not possibly marry the other girl. It would destroy all her chances of marrying a man whom she could love, honour and respect . . ."