"Ah. You judge me by yourself. Well, then, Ferdy, suppose I refuse to allow you to marry Zara?"
"You can't. I am my own master and over age."
"Quite so, and Zara, who must be a most self-denying person, is willing to wait until you are rich in two years. I understand; but in the meantime, Ferdy, what if I stop your allowance?"
"I shall go to law," said Ferdy, pompously.
"I am afraid that won't do you much good," retorted his sister, with a calm smile. "In the first place, you have no money, and no lawyer will undertake the case unless certain fees are paid down. In the second place, you will fail in your action. The will is perfectly clear as to my powers and duties as guardian. I have full power to do what I like until you are legally of age in two years."
"It's an infernal shame," muttered Ferdy, who had sense enough to see that she spoke the truth.
"I don't think so, and any sensible person who understood the position of things would not think so either. However, you can see that it is waste of time for you to go to law. What else can you do?"
"Yes," said Ferdy, triumphantly, and rubbing his hands. "Ah, you didn't think I'd say that, did you?"
"I expected to hear anything, so long as it was sufficiently silly," said Clarice, in her coldest tone. "Really, Ferdy, you are a child."
"You won't find it so when I take my own way."
"I have told you. I am engaged to Zara, and I intend to marry her, now that Prudence has behaved so badly. If you refuse to allow me money, I'll chuck the medical profession and go on the stage to act with Zara in her Butterfly sketch at the Mascot Music Hall. She isn't satisfied with the Chrysalis, and I can act that."
"Act what?" asked Clarice, puzzled by the scientific word.
"The Chrysalis. In the sketch--it is called the Birth of a Butterfly--there's a Chrysalis, acted by a man, which wriggles about the stage. Out of it comes Zara as the Butterfly, and----"
"Oh, I understand. What a high ambition you have. I should think a worm of that acrobatic kind would just suit you. So this is your plan, is it?"
"Yes. I came down especially to tell you."
"He says nothing. Jerce is sulky with me, because you----"
"Because I refused to marry him. What a child the man is, in spite of his fame and knighthood. As much a child as you are."