"I shan't do that," he said gravely; "it will be without a shilling." But he tempered this savage statement with a faint smile.
"Papa, dear, is this quite definite? Are you talking in your right mind and do you really mean what you say?"
"Suppose you talk the matter over with your mother--she's always indulged you in every way. See what she says."
It developed that neither of Cynthia's parents was enthusiastic at the prospect of her marrying a nameless young man--she had told them his name, but that was all she got for her pains--who hadn't a penny and who had had consumption, and might or might not be sound again. Personally they did not believe that consumption can be cured. It can be arrested for a time, they admitted, but it always comes back. Cynthia's mother even made a physiological attack on Cynthia's understanding, with the result that Cynthia turned indignantly pink and left the room, saying:
"If the doctor thinks it's perfectly right and proper for us to marry I don't see the least point in listening to the opinions of excited and prejudiced amateurs."
The ultimatum that she had from her parents was distinct, final, and painful.
"Marry him if you like. We will neither forgive you nor support you."
They were perfectly calm with her--cool, affectionate, sensible, and worldly, as it is right and proper for parents to be. She told them they were wrong-headed, old-fashioned, and unintelligent; but as long as they hadn't made scenes and talked loud she found that she couldn't help loving them almost as much as she always had; but she loved G. G. very much more. And having definitely decided to defy her family, to marry G. G. and live happily ever afterward, she consulted her check-book and discovered that her available munition of war was something less than five hundred dollars--most of it owed to her dress-maker.
"Well, well!" she said; "she's always had plenty of money from me; she can afford to wait."
And Cynthia wrote to her dress-maker, who was also her friend!
MY DEAR CELESTE: I have decided that you will have to afford to wait for your money. I have an enterprise in view which calls for all the available capital I have. Please write me a nice note and say that you don't mind a bit. Otherwise we shall stop being friends and I shall always get my clothes from somebody else. Let me know when the new models come....