Page:Edgar Jepson--the four philanthropists.djvu/262

252 bud, and I said severely, "The whole thing is out of the question."

"Out of the question? Why?" he cried.

"She's a child. She's only just done her hair up."

"She's nearly seventeen; and both my grandmother and great-grandmother were married before they were seventeen."

"Really, you can't expect an advanced socialist like myself to go to the extreme of countenancing the gross malpractices of our grandmothers. It was very wrong of them."

"It is old-fashioned, I know, but I don't see any harm in it, and if you like, I'll wait."

"I don't like," I said harshly. "I don't think you're at all the kind of man for Angel to marry." "Why not?" he said flushing angrily.

"In the first place your profession of practical philanthropist is not the profession one approves of in the husband of one's sister."

"It's the same as yours!"

"Mine has nothing to do with the matter. I'm not the man who wants to marry. If I did, I should retire from philanthropy and run no risk of leaving my wife a disgraced widow."

"Well, I'll retire," he growled.

"Just so. But you have put your hand to the plough and I could not dream of being responsible for your letting go of it. Besides, there is another