"Oh, because!... There are chances, if you've got the feeling in your finger tips!... Don't you know, Gipsy, that something like that is the career for a man like me? If I had been my father, I could have waved my sword and gone charging down history--and if I'd been my grandfather, I could have poured out Whig eloquence from every stump in the country and looked Olympian and been carried in procession (I don't like politics now; it's an entirely different thing);--and if I'd been my great-grandfather, I could have filibustered or settled the Southwest; and back of that I could have done almost any old thing--come over with the Adventurers, seized a continent, shared England with the Normans, marauded with the Vikings, whiled through Europe with Attila, done almost anything and come out with a name and my arms full! Now you can't conquer things like that, but, by George, you can corner things!" "What do you mean?--That you want to become a rich man?" "That's what most of those others wanted. Yes, riches and power." "I was reading the other day a magazine article. It said that the day when any American, if he had energy and ambition, might hope to make a great fortune was past. It said that the Capets and Plantagenets and Hapsburgs were all here; that the dynasties were established and the _entente cordiale_ in operation; that young and adventurous Americans might hope to become captains of mercenaries, or they might go in for being court chaplains, and troubadours." "Oh, that article had dyspepsia!" said Ralph. "It isn't as easy as it was, that's certain! but it's possible yet, in 1894--if you've got an opening." "Have you got one?" "Elder and Marten would take me in. Marten was an old flame of my mother's, and I got his son Dick out of a scrape last year.--In ten years, you'll see, Gipsy! I'll send you orchids and pearls!" "I don't want them, thank you, Ralph." Ralph took the flower from his buttonhole and began to pluck away its petals. "Gipsy, I was awfully glad, last summer, when you sent that Eglantine fellow about his business." "Mr. Laydon and I sent each other." "Well, the road's clear--that's all I want to know! Gipsy--" "Ralph, it's no use. I'm not going to listen." "The family has planned this ever since we were infants. When you used to come to Hawk Nest with your big eyes and your blue gingham dress and your white stockings--I knew it somehow even then, even when I teased you so--" "You certainly teased me. Do you remember the rain barrel?" "No, I don't. The family has set its heart--" "Oh, Ralph, family can be such a tyrant! At any rate, ours will have to take its heart off this." Ralph turned sullen. "Well, the family used to settle it for women." "Yes, it did--when you came over with William the Conqueror! Do you want to _take_ me, regardless--just as you'd take those millions? Well, you may take those millions, but you can't take me!" "Your father wants it, too. The Colonel showed me a letter--"