don't be a fool. My brother, sir, may be pig-headed--sit down,
Susanna!"

"You and I, sir," said Garrett Wesley, "as childless men, are in no
position to judge a parent's feelings."

"Children? Let me tell you that I had a son, sir, and he broke my
heart. He is in India now, I believe; a middle-aged rake. I give
you leave to find and adopt _him_, so long as you don't ask me to see
his face again. One was too many for me, and here's a woman with ten
children alive--Heaven knows how many she's buried--ten children
alive and half-clothed, and herself the youngest of twenty-five!"
He broke off and chuckled. "Did you ever hear tell, sir, what old
Dr. Martin said after baptizing Susanna here? Someone asked him
'How many children had Dr. Annesley?' 'I forget for the moment,'
said the doctor, but 'tis either two dozen or a quarter of a
hundred.' And here's a woman, sir, with such a sense of her
offspring's importance that she higgles over accepting a fortune for
one of 'em!"

"Can you suffer this, ma'am?" Garrett Wesley began. But the
apothecary for the moment was neither to hold nor to bind.

"Sam! _You_ have a grain of sense in your head. Don't sit there
mum-chance, man! Speak up and tell your mother not to be a fool.
You are no child; you know your father, and that, if given one chance
in a hundred to act perversely, he'll take it as sure as fate.
For heaven's sake persuade your mother to use common caution and keep
his finger out of this pie!"