resolute, determined, sincere fellow, Braden, and you have in you the
making of a splendid character. You will succeed in anything you
undertake. I like your eye, my boy, and I like the set of your jaw. You
have principle and you have a sense of reverence that is quite uncommon in
these days of ours. I daresay you have been wicked in an essential sort of
way, and I fancy you have been just as necessarily honourable. I don't
like a mollycoddle. I don't like anything invertebrate. I despise a
Christian who doesn't understand Christ. Christ despised sin but he didn't
despise sinners. And that brings us back to Mrs. Tresslyn,—Constance Blair
that was. You will have to be exceedingly well fortified, my boy, if you
expect to withstand the clever Constance. She is the refinement of
maternal ambition. She will not be satisfied to have her daughter married
to a mere practice. She didn't bring her up for that. She will ask me to
come and see her within the next few days. What am I to say to her when
she asks me if I expect you and Anne to live on what you can earn out of
your ridiculous profession?"

"I think that's all pretty well understood," said Braden easily. "You do
Mrs. Tresslyn an injustice, granddaddy. She says it will be a splendid
thing for Anne to struggle along as we shall have to do for a while.
Character building, is the way she puts it."

"Just the same, I shall expect a message from her before the engagement is
announced," said the old man drily.

A hard glitter had come into his eyes. He loved this good-looking, earnest
grandson of his, and he was troubled. He lay awake half the night thinking
over this piece of not unexpected news.

The next morning at breakfast he said to Braden: "See here, my boy, you