The Reverberator

he old man habitually sat, Mr. Probert laid down his book and kept on his glasses. "Of course you'll continue to live with m

especially in the days before he could see for himself, had very often been his father, the lightest and most amiable specimen of the type that enjoyed easy possession of the hearth-rug. People left it to him; he was so transparent, like a glass screen, and he never triumphed in debate. His word on most subjects was not felt to be the last (it was usually not more conclusive than a shrugging inarticulate resignation, an "Ah you know, what will you have?"); but he had been none the less a part of the very prestige of some dozen good houses, most of them over the river, in the conservative faubourg, and several to-day profaned shrines, cold and desolate hearths. These had made up Mr. Probert's pleasant world-a world not too small for him and yet not too large, though some of them supposed themselves great institutions. Gaston knew the succession of events that had helped to make a difference, the most salient of which were the death of his brother, the death of his mother, and above all perhaps the demise of Mme. de Marignac, to whom the old boy used still to go three or four evenings out of the seven and sometimes even in the morning besides. Gaston fully measured the place she had held in his father's life and affection, and the terms on which they had grown up together-her people had been friend

said. "We shall fill out the house a little, and won't that

deal, I suppose, with Mr.

of her if she did? But they're not intrusive; they're essentially modest people; the

assuring one of it," Mr. Probert said. "The fath

r dear man, kno

l I know what

ys know!" Ga

us if he doesn't k

e's full of a funny lit

aults; nor yet with the fat young lady, though she's evidently vulgar-even if you call it perhaps t

emain so. They're not morbid nor suspicious. And don't you

out 'Parus,'

an Susan has got over the barrier. We shall make her speak French; she has a

beauties without number. I've known the most charming women of our time-women of an order to which Miss Francie, con rispetto parlando, will never begin to belong. I'm difficult about women-how can I help it? Therefore when you pick up a little American girl at an

you on the spot," Gaston

ows use! How many times in one's l

e'll char

she doesn't: I'll engage for th

r, father-she's worth

Dosson. He thanked God she was just the sort of imponderable infinite quantity, such as there were no stupid terms for, that he did feel. He didn't know what old frumps his father might have frequented-the style of 1830, with long curls in front, a vapid simper, a Scotch plaid dress and a corsage, in a point suggestive of twenty whalebones, coming down to the knees-but he could remember Mme. de Marignac's Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays, with Sundays and ot

th?" Mr. Probert asked af

ou mean,

ting forward. Susan's insistence on them was mainly wh

's having been brought over, but he hated to hear it spoken of a

nly t

you, he waived the question of money and he wa

on of his own, you me

ng man flattered himself that this was as near as he w

ir-or your sisters',"

see where we are and that

it and I should think they'd be tired of t

. However, the period of discussion's closed. We've taken the jump." He then added as

y opi

he's ch

ling it to make for a greater amenity in the whole connexion that ces messieurs should like the little girl at the hotel. Gaston didn't care a straw what it made for, and would have seen himself in bondage indeed had he given a second thought to the question. This was especially the case as his father's mention of the approval of two of his brothers-in-law appeared to point to a possible disapproval on the part of the third. Francie's lover cared as little whether she displeased M. de Brecourt as he cared whethe

on the fire. "You won't be content till we're enthusiastic. She

at would be better-what you'd hav

irst place you must remember that I was

urned out you shouldn't be struck with my felicity. To get somethi

? Tudieu!" said his

to marry an American. There's a sad want of freshness-th

e the best thing the world contains. That's precisely w

at, dear

they were French, being otherwise wha

they would be suc

queer fish," said Mr. Probert

ss at that. They'

" cried the old man, o

o get used to everything. Mr. Dosson's designs and Delia's took no articulate form; what was mainly clear to Gaston was that his future wife's relatives had as yet no sense of disconnexion. He knew that Mr. Dosson would do whatever Delia liked and that Delia would like to "start" her sister-this whether or no she expected to be present at the rest of the race. Mr. Probert notified Mr. Dosson of what he proposed to "do" for his son, and Mr. Dosson appeared more quietly amused than anything else at the news. He announced in return no intentions in regard to Francie, and his strange silence was the cause of another convocatio

s laid upon him and the question practically faced; then everything yielded to the consideration that he had best wait till after his marriage, when he might be so auspiciously accompanied by his wife. Francie would be in many ways so propitious an introducer. This abatement would have taken effect had not a call for an equal energy on Mr. Dosson's part suddenly appeared to reach and to move that gentleman. He had business on the other side, he announced, to attend to, though his starting for New York presented difficulties, since he couldn't in such a situation leave his daughters alone. Not only would such a proceeding have given scandal to the Proberts, but Gaston learned, with much surprise and not a little amusement, that Delia, in consequence of changes now finely wrought in her personal philosophy, w

d of a morning they spent with papers and pencils; and on this Gaston made his preparations to sail. Before he left Paris Francie, to do her justice, confided to him that her objection to going in such an intimate way even to Mme. de Brecourt's had been founded on a fear that in close quarters she might do something that would make them all despise her. Gaston replied, in the first place, ardently, that this was the very delirium of delicacy, and that he wanted to know in the second if she expected never to be at close quarters with "tous les si