“No matter,” I continued; “any woman who will wear sapphires and has the assurance to go to a dinner party with its attendant expenses of dress, carriage, et cetera, when she cannot pay her debts and expects at any minute to be sold out of house and home, is a woman who deserves to have a pretty sharp lesson taught her, and I hope you will do it. Now, don’t let those blue eyes of his and that majestic manner overawe you and cajole you into feeling that you owe him a debt of gratitude to be paid by getting him out of this emergency; for it will serve only to let him teach his children that the highroad to comfort and ease is to go on the principle that the public owes a genius a living.” “No, I do not mean to do that,” replied Mildred, thoughtfully; “but I cannot let this disgrace come to them when I can help it as well as not, and it is a rather awkward thing for me to dictate conditions to a man who is old enough to be my father, one who has risked his life on many a battlefield, and is a genius and a famous scholar. I cannot lay the blame on his wife. She adores him, and he thinks her failures are better than other people’s successes. The whole family in fact forms the most genuine mutual admiration society. They seem utterly oblivious of the fact that in letting their milkman’s bill go unpaid, and in giving their children money to go riding in the goat carriage in the park, they are doing anything dishonorable. “Every one who knows them says they have no more wisdom in bringing up their children than two babies. They let them eat and drink what they like, sit up as late as they like, and care more about their speaking French and German well than about their knowing the multiplication table, or anything practical. “If they were not such devout churchpeople, one would not be so amazed at this extravagance,” ejaculated Mildred warmly, “though perhaps genius may be pardoned for lacking common sense and common honesty,” she added, grimly. Then rising, she continued, as she put on her hat and gloves: “I know what I shall do. I have a scheme for helping him in a way that will be something more than merely giving him immediate material aid. I know a dear old lady who used to be papa’s friend and his, and I will go at once to see her. She can tell me some facts that I need to know.” Two hours later, she had but just returned when the General called. He looked nervous and flushed, and I never saw Mildred seem more embarrassed. In an adjoining room I awaited with some impatience the close of the interview.