“He has no manners at all,” roared Eddie. “Oh, how nice,” said Crystal, of whom it might be asserted without flattery that she now understood in perfection the art of irritating Eddie. “He is very direct and natural,” her father continued. “He has a lot more punch than your brother-in-law, my dear. In fact, I was rather impressed with the young fellow until he and Eddie fell to quarreling. Things did not go so well, then.” “You mean,” said Crystal, the gossip rather getting the best of the reformer in her, “that he lost his temper horribly?” “I should say he did,” said Eddie. “Well, Eddie, you know you were not perfectly calm,” answered Cord. “Let us say that they both lost their tempers, which is strange, for as far as I could see they were agreed on many essentials. They both believe that one class in the community ought to govern the other. They both believe the world is in a very bad way; only, according to Eddie, we are going to have chaos if capital loses its control of the situation; and according to Moreton we are going to have chaos if labor doesn’t get control. So, as one or the other seems bound to happen, we ought to be able to adjust ourselves to chaos. In fact, Crystal, I have been interviewing McKellar about having a chaos cellar built in the garden.” Eddie pushed back his plate; it was empty, but the gesture suggested that he could not go on choking down the food of a man who joked about such serious matters. “I must say, Mr. Cord,” he began, “I really must say—” He paused, surprised to find that he really hadn’t anything that he must say, and Crystal turned to her father: “But you haven’t told me why he came. To see Eugenia, I suppose?” “No; he hadn’t heard of the marriage. He came to talk to his brother.” “For you must know,” put in Eddie, hastily, “that Mr. Ben Moreton does not approve of the marriage—oh, dear, no. He would consider such a connection quite beneath his family. He disapproves of Eugenia as a sister-in-law.” “How could any one disapprove of her?” asked her sister, hotly. “Jevver hear such nerve?” said Eddie. “It’s not Eugenia; it’s capital Moreton disapproves of,” Mr. Cord went on, patiently explaining. “You see it never crossed our minds that the Moretons might object, but of course they do. They regard us as a very degrading connection. Doubtless it will hurt Ben Moreton with his readers to be connected with a financial pirate like myself, quite as much as it will hurt me in the eyes of most of my fellow board members when it becomes known that my son-in-law’s brother is the editor of _Liberty_.” “The Moretons disapprove,” repeated Crystal, to whom the idea was not at all agreeable.