"On the contrary, I'm perfectly serious. I don't see why you shouldn't manage the business. The gentleman is an acquaintance of yours. _I_ don't know him." Elmore rose and put his hands in his pockets. "What do you intend to do? Do you like this clandestine sort of thing to go on? I dare say the fellow only wishes to amuse himself by a flirtation with a pretty American. But the question is whether you wish him to do so. I'm willing to lay his conduct to a misunderstanding of our customs, and to suppose that he thinks this is the way Americans do. I take the matter at its best: he speaks to Lily on the train without an introduction; he joins you in your walk without invitation; he writes to her without leave, and proposes to get up a correspondence. It is all perfectly right and proper, and will appear so to Lily's friends when they hear of it. But I'm curious to know how you're going to manage the sequel. Do you wish the affair to go on, and how long do you wish it to go on?" "You know very well that I don't wish it to go on." "Then you wish it broken off?" "Of course I do." "How?" "I think there is such a thing as acting kindly and considerately. I don't see anything in Captain Ehrhardt's conduct that calls for _savage_ treatment," said Mrs. Elmore. "You would like to have him stopped, but stopped gradually. Well, I don't wish to be savage, either, and I will act upon any suggestion of yours. I want Lily's people to feel that we managed not only wisely but humanely in checking a man who was resolved to force his acquaintance upon her." Mrs. Elmore thought a long while. Then she said: "Why, of course, Owen, you're right about it. There _is_ no other way. There couldn't be any kindness in checking him gradually. But I wish," she added sorrowfully, "that he had not been such a _complete_ goose; and then we could have done something with him." "I am obliged to him for the perfection which you regret, my dear. If he had been less complete, he would have been much harder to manage." "Well," said Mrs. Elmore, rising, "I shall always say that he meant well. But send the letter."