Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/49

 and obligations of the Second Generation. He rode to hounds in a pink coat, maintaining his own pack on Long Island and being M.F.H., cruised about the world in a steam yacht that was the last cry in nautical comfort, kept up three estates, and, in brief, proved to the world that only one generation is required to make a gentleman—when aided by magic. He was a fair horseman, a poor huntsman, a mediocre shot, a good husband and an indulgent father. He gave much to charity and saw that the world learned of it. He was ambitious regarding his daughter, and it was said that his disappointment when her engagement to Gordon Ames was denied was truly pathetic. At present, having failed at an alliance with America's Aristocracy of Wealth, he was patently negotiating for an alliance with England's Nobility of Poverty, and the fair-haired Earl of Marctdell—pronounced Mardel, if you please—who had been under his wing most of the winter was about run to earth. The earl was a good-natured, not overly scintillant youth who was known through the colony as Tommy or Tommy Tupence. "I say, don't call me that," he had begged a lady who addressed him as Your