"So far as I am concerned, she is still engaged to me. She hasn't broken
it off by word or letter. If you don't mind, I'd like to have it broken
off in the regular way. It doesn't seem quite proper for her to remain
engaged to me right up to the instant she marries my grandfather. Or is it
possible that she intends to remain bound to me during the lifetime of my
grandparent, with the idea of holding me to my bargain when he is gone?"

"Don't be ridiculous," was all that Mrs. Tresslyn said in response to this
sarcasm, but she said it scathingly.

For a full minute they stood looking into each other's eyes, each
appraising the other, one offensively, the other defensively. She had the
advantage of him, for she was prepared to defend herself while he was in
the position of one who attacks without strategy and leaps from one
exposed spot to another. It was to her advantage that she knew that he
despised her; it was to his disadvantage that he knew she had always liked
him after a manner of her own, and doubtless liked him now despite the
things he had said to her. She had liked him from his boyhood days when
report had it that he was to be the sole heir to his grandfather's
millions, and she had liked him, no doubt, quite as sincerely, after the
old man had declared that he did not intend to ruin a brilliant career by
leaving a lot of uninspiring money to his ambitious grandson.

In so many words, old Templeton Thorpe had said, not two months before,
that he intended to leave practically all of his money to charity! All
except the two millions he stood ready to settle upon his bride the day
she married him! Possibly Mrs. Tresslyn liked the grandson all the more
for the treasures that he had lost, or was about to lose. It is easy to
like a man who will not be pitied. At any rate, she did not consider it
worth while to despise him, now that he had only a profession to offer in