"We'll leave nothing to anybody."

"She'll want to get a trousseau together and all that sort of thing.
I'm ready to go through with it at any time, but you know what girls
are." He was perspiring.

"Yes," said the General with a reminiscent light in his eye. "I
daresay they all enjoy a few weeks of courtship and love-making."

Eddie gulped suddenly and then shot a quick, hunted look toward the
buffet door.

"Have a drink?" demanded the other abruptly. He had caught the sign of
danger.

They strolled into the buffet, arm-in-arm, one loving the world in
general, the other hating everybody in it, including the General.
Before they parted Eddie Ten Eyck extracted a solemn promise from his
future step-father-in-law that he would ascertain Martha's exact
weight and report the figure to him on the following day.

"It will seem easier if I know just about what to expect," explained
the young man.

That very afternoon the General, with a timidity that astonished him,
requested his stepdaughter to report her correct weight to him on the
following morning. He kept his face well screened behind his newspaper
while speaking, and his voice was a little thick.

"What for, father?" asked Martha, looking up from her book in