"Certainly you do not; no sensible person would. I showed it to my young gentleman, and requested an explanation. 'Oh,' he said, 'when you told me to write to Troy, it made me think of those lines.' He added that not wishing to forget them, he wrote them down on a sheet of paper, and that probably he used the other side of the sheet for the Troy letter--'by mistake.' 'Mistake, sir!' I said, 'a sufficient number of _mistakes_ will send me out of business.'" "Samuel," said Dr. Lavendar thoughtfully, "do you recall whose face it was that 'launched the thousand ships' on Troy?" Samuel shook his head, "Helen's" said Dr. Lavendar. The senior warden frowned, then suddenly understood. "Oh, yes, I know all about that. Another evidence of his folly!" "I've no doubt you feel like spanking him," Dr. Lavendar said sympathetically, "but--" he stopped short. Sam Wright was crimson. "I! _Spank_ him? I?" He got up, opening and shutting his hands, his face very red. The old minister looked at him in consternation. "Sam! what on earth is the matter with you? Can't a man have his joke?" Mr. Wright sat down. He put his hand to his mouth as though to hide some trembling betrayal; his very ears were purple. Dr. Lavendar apologized profusely. "I was only in fun. I'm sure you know that I meant no disrespect to the boy. I only wanted to cheer you up." "I understand, sir; it is of no consequence. I--I had something else on my mind. It is of no consequence." The color faded, and his face fell into its usual bleak lines, but his mouth twitched. A minute afterwards he began to speak with ponderous dignity. "This love-making business is, of course, most mortifying to me; and also, no doubt, annoying to Mrs. Richie. To begin with, she is eleven years older than he--he told his mother so. He added, if you please! that he hoped to marry her." "Well! Well!" said Dr. Lavendar. "I told him," Mr. Wright continued, "that in my very humble opinion it was contemptible for a man to marry and allow another man to support his wife." Dr. Lavendar sat up in shocked dismay. "Samuel!" "I, sir," the banker explained, "am his father, and I support him. If he marries, I shall have to support his wife. According to my poor theories of propriety, a man who lets another man support his wife had better not have one." "But you ought not to have put it that way," Dr. Lavendar protested, "I merely put the fact," said Samuel Wright "Furthermore, unless he stops dangling at her apron-strings, I shall stop his allowance, I shall so inform him." "You surely won't do such a foolish thing!" "Would you have me sit still? Not put up a single barrier to keep him in bounds?" "Samuel, do you know what barriers mean to a colt?" Mr. Wright made no response. "They mean something to jump over." "Possibly," said Mr. Wright with dignity, "you are, to some extent, correct. But a man cannot permit his only son to run wild and founder."