"A daughter of Mrs. Day, at the grocer's shop; widow of----? But we needn't go into that."
"It doesn't seem necessary. Her daughter."
"Well--!" said Sir Francis slowly. "You have given me one reason more, my dear boy, and that a supreme one, for hastening your departure. Take my advice--you will never regret it--and go to-morrow."
"No," Reggie said, and then both were silent.
When the elder again began, he had changed his easy, almost indifferent tone for one firmer and less indulgent.
"What you propose is impossible," he said.
"Have you thought what you would be marrying? The grocer's shop, the debts, the helpless mother, the disreputable private soldier of a brother (he enlisted, I am told, to save himself from prison, as the father killed himself for the same purpose). A charming family with which to ally yourself, truly!"
"I don't intend to marry the family. I should allow the mother--not a bad sort at all. I'm fond of her--a hundred a year, to shut the shop up. I should--"
"Nonsense! The idea is ridiculous; monstrous. Get married if you must, but take a girl of your own position in life. Easy enough to find--"
"Then, more fool you. But if you don't, at least marry a woman that has honest blood in her veins--for your children's sake."
Reggie turned away his head sulkily. "The Days were good enough for me before they fell into trouble," he said.
His brother lifted his head and squared his shoulders, standing up tall and imposing before the empty grate. "William Day was never good enough for me," he said.
"I don't see that a girl is to be made to suffer all her life because her father was not good enough for you," Reggie said sulkily.
"Try not to be an ass, my dear fellow. You don't suppose you can be allowed to do a mad thing like this without my telling you what I think of it. You know, I have never had much opinion of your judgment--except, perhaps, in the matter of horses; but in your admiration for this Miss Day your taste is to my thinking astoundingly bad. I call her a commonplace, almost vulgar young woman."
"She is pretentious, she is affected, she is gushing--what is that but to be vulgar? She is not even pretty--"
"Not pretty!" Reggie cried, and started up from his chair. "Not pretty! Deleah Day!"