The title would have gone to her son--but no, of course,
she had no son--and so it passed to a stranger--an
outsider that had been an usher in a school, or something
of that sort. You can fancy what a blow this was to me.
Instead of being the grandfather of a Duke, I have a childless
widow thrust back upon my hands! Fine luck, eh? And then,
to cap all, she takes her six hundred a year and goes off
by herself, and gives me the cold shoulder completely.
What is it Shakespeare says? 'How sharper than a serpent's
teeth'----"
Thorpe brought his fist down upon the table with an
emphasis which abruptly broke the quotation in half.
He had been frowning moodily at his guest for some minutes,
relighting his cigar more than once meanwhile. He had
made a mental calculation of what the old man had had
to drink, and had reassured himself as to his condition.
His garrulity might have an alcoholic basis, but his
wits were clear enough. It was time to take a new line
with him.
"I don't want to hear you abuse your daughter," he admonished
him now, with a purpose glowing steadily in his firm glance.
"Damn it all, why shouldn't she go off by herself, and take
care of her own money her own way? It's little enough,
God knows, for such a lady as she is. Why should you
expect her to support you out of it? No--sit still!
Listen to me!"--he stretched out his hand, and laid it
with restraining heaviness upon the General's arm--"you
don't want to have any row with me.
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