Page:O Genteel Lady! (1926).pdf/166

 'Would you mind if I went, Papa?'

'No, suit yourself.'

'But you are not in sympathy?'

'Of course not. I even profess to Christianity which, I believe, tells us that the body is not the soul.'

(True of some, but how could it be of Mamma?)

'I have money enough, haven't I?'

'Enough to go around the world.'

'Then if there's nothing more to say, I'll be going back to Boston, Papa.'

'Wait.' He wrote upon the back of a student's translation of an Horatian Ode, and gave it to her. 'Tell him that you are coming. You will find him an agreeable and considerate...young gentleman.'

'Why, Papa! I don't want to even see him...ever.'

'You will find it difficult to move the body without him. And here's another man you must see.'

He took back the paper and wrote again. 'The American Consul in Florence, also a gentleman,' he explained.

'Good-bye, Papa.'

'Good-bye, Lanice. I'll write you details of the financial end.'

'Thank you, and good-bye again, Papa.'

'Mr. Fox, I want to go to Italy.'

'I've noticed that something was coming on. So it's Italy, is it? Well, go by all means, and we'll scrape