"Jack--I can't endure your facetiousness!"
"I'm not facetious, mother dear. I'm most confoundedly and consummately serious. I really want you to let me off on this Europe business. Won't you--there's a dear?"
"Why, your passage is paid for, and my plans--You know Ethel Quintard and her mother are sailing on the same boat. No, most certainly I shall not let you off!"
"Well, if that's the way you feel about it," he sighed again, "perhaps we'd better drop this matter also--temporarily."
"This matter we'll also drop permanently," his mother said, again with her calm, incontrovertible emphasis.
"Well, that brings us to the third point." He drew a copy of the "Record" from his pocket and pointed to a paragraph. "Mother, this is the second time my engagement to Ethel Quintard has been in print. I must say that I don't think it's nice of Ethel and Mrs. Quintard to let those rumors stand. I would deny them myself, only it seems rather a raw thing for a fellow to do. Mother, you must deny them."
"Mother, you are simply hypnotizing yourself into the belief that I am going to marry Ethel Quintard. When"--he painfully recrossed his legs, and smiled pleasantly at his mother--"when, as a matter of fact, what I have been trying to lead up to is to tell you that I shall never lead Ethel's three millions to the altar."
Jack slowly nodded his head. "Yes, all off."
"Oh, for several reasons," he returned mildly. "But one of the reasons is, that I happen to be engaged to someone else."
"Engaged!" gasped Mrs. De Peyster, falling back. "And without my knowing it! Who is she?"
"Mary Morgan! I never heard of her. Who's her father?"
"I don't mean his name. But who is he--what's his family--his financial affiliations?"
"Oh, I see. Mary told me he runs a shoe store up in Buffalo."
"Or perhaps," Jack corrected, "it was a grocery. I'm not certain."
"Oh!" gasped Mrs. De Peyster. "Oh! And--and this--this--Mary person--"
"She plays the piano, and is going to be a professional."
For a moment Mrs. De Peyster's horror was inarticulate. Then it began to regain its power of speech.
"What--you throw away--Ethel Quintard--for a little pianist! You compare a girl like--like that--to Ethel Quintard!"
"Compare them? Not for one little minute, mother, dear! For Mary has brains and--"