John Gault rose suddenly and went to the back of the box, where he joined his brother, who was silently digesting his pleasure in the music. Tod, quite unconscious of any offense, was glad to be left in sole possession of Letitia, and rambled on, repeating tag-ends of gossip that had lodged in his shallow brain. "The colonel's a great old chap. He likes the 'long green.' He once had plenty of it, and once you get the habit of having it, it's worse than morphine to get cured of. The colonel ain't got cured." "He hasn't got a cent," said Letitia, "so I don't see but that he's got to get cured." "There's two good ways of getting money when you ain't got it--just two," said Tod, oracularly. "And what are those?" "Stealing and borrowing. And if you steal you know there's always a risk about being an expense to your country; and no self-respecting man wants that. But borrowing! Get a good, quiet, peaceable victim,--the kind that don't make a fuss, likes to have his leg pulled, thrives on it, misses it when you leave off,--and you're on velvet. I should judge the colonel had found just the right kind." "What a horrid thing to say, Tod!" "Horrid! The colonel doesn't think it's horrid. I wonder who he's corralled. Three years ago he took hold of my father. It was great, the way he worked the old man. You know, people haven't been able to trace Jerry McCormick through life by the quarters he's dropped. It did my heart good to see the way the colonel managed him. I guess he must have got nearly a thou' out of him before my father shut down." "I shouldn't think his daughter would like that," said Letitia, feeling a chill at her heart. Tod raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. His faith in the pride and fine feelings of young women who were poor did not appear strong. But in spite of his assumption of a blasé cynicism, he was a kindly soul at heart. "Oh, she mightn't know," he said; "it's so easy to fool women." Letitia was silent for a moment. Then she commented, as if speaking to herself: "I suppose it would be easy for her father to fool her?" "Easy as lying." "Do you suppose he borrows that way from other men?" Tod directed upon her an incredulous side glance. Then, meeting the anxious inquiry of her eyes, he broke into a broad smile. "Well, I should snicker," he said, in an amused tone. The curtain rose here, and further dialogue was cut off, for Letitia was a lover of singing, and when the music began again, sank into a rapt and immovable silence. During the other entr'actes the conversation was general, and any more confidences on the subject of Colonel Reed and his daughter were impossible.