"What's that scapegrace brother of mine been doing, Smith?" he asked, the
moment he entered.

"Wanting to marry Adela," I replied.

"What has he done?"

"Called this morning."

"And seen Colonel Cathcart?"

"No."

"Not at home?"

"In a social sense, not at home; in a moral sense, very far from at home;
in a natural sense, seated in his own arm-chair, with his own work on the
Peninsular War open on the table before him."

"Wouldn't see him?"

"No."

"What's he to do then?"

"I think we had better leave that to him. Harry is not the man I take him
for if he doesn't know his own way better than you or I can tell him."

"You're right, Smith. How's Miss Cathcart?"