"Our great-grandfathers pampered their bellies. We know better; we have learnt that it is the part of wisdom to starve them. You're still where our grandsires were." "And where are you?" "I'm on the high road to as fine an attack of indigestion as a man need have, and live." "I can give you the name of one of the greatest authorities on indigestion." "I dare swear you can give me the names of one or two. I shouldn't be surprised if that sucking-pig proves to be the death of me, beyond the skill of all your authorities." "It was cooked to a turn." "I ought to know how it was cooked, considering the way that I behaved to it. It's wicked to set such meat before a man. And now, I've something which I wish to say to you." "You've said one or two things already--what's the other?" The doctor, taking the cigar out of his mouth, regarded the ash on the tip. "You remember Wallace's daughter?" "Cuthbert Grahame's girl?" The doctor nodded. "I've seen her this afternoon." "No? I wondered what had become of her, more than once. I've seen and heard nothing of her since he turned her out." "He didn't turn her out, she turned herself out. I had the story from his own lips." "So had I. To all intents and purposes he turned her out, however he may have put it to himself or to you." "He asked her to marry him, and she wouldn't." "He asked her not once or twice, but again and again, until he made it plain that his house was no place for her unless she meant to be his wife. So, as she didn't, there was nothing for her but to go." "It was a fool business." "On both sides. Why he wanted to marry her I don't know. I never do know why a man wants to marry. I'd sooner have a buzz saw in every room in the house than a wife in one. Why she wouldn't marry him, I know still less." "There was the difference in their years. Then he was already threatening to be what he afterwards became--physically, I mean." "Well, what of it? If a girl in her position has to marry, I should say that there are two things which she ought to look for first of all--money, and a sick husband; if possible, one who is already sick unto death. In Grahame she'd have had both." There was silence, as if both parties were giving to Mr. McTavish's words the consideration due to a profound aphorism. It was the doctor who spoke next. "He always believed that she would come back again, saying yes." "I'd no patience with the man, he was all kinds of a fool. If he wanted her to be his wife, he didn't go the right way to get her. When she said no, instead of thanking God for his undeserved escape, he stormed and raved, fretted and fumed, until he became only fit to be exhibited in a booth at a fair." "When he heard that she was in love with some one else, it was that that was the death of him."