Page:Old New York 2 The Old Maid.djvu/14

 emphasized it to his son, Frederick John, in whom he had scented a faint leaning toward the untried and unprofitable.

“You let the Lannings and the Dagonets and the Spenders take risks and fly kites. It’s the county-family blood in ‘em: we’ve nothing to do with that. Look how they’re petering out already—the men, I mean. Let your boys marry their girls, if you like (they’re wholesome and handsome); though I’d sooner see my grandsons take a Lovell or a Vandergrave, or any of our own kind. But don’t let your sons go mooning around after their young fellows, horse-racing, and running down south to those d—d Springs, and gambling at New Orleans, and all the rest of it. That’s how you'll build up the family, and keep the weather out. The way we’ve always done it.” Frederick John listened, obeyed, mar- [ 6 ]