“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.

“Disapprove, nonsense!” said Eddie.  “I believe he came to blackmail you.  To see what he could get out of you if he offered to stop the marriage.  Well, why not?  If these fellows believe all the money ought to be taken away from the capitalists, why should they care how it’s done?  I can’t see much difference between robbing a man, and legislating his fortune out of—­”

“Well, I must tell you, father dear,” said Crystal, exactly as if Eddie had not been speaking, “that I think it was horrid of you not to have me called when you must have known—­”

“Crystal, you’re scolding me,” wailed her father.  “And most unjustly.  I did ask him to lunch just for your sake, although I saw Eddie was shocked, and I was afraid Tomes would give warning.  But I did ask him, only he wouldn’t stay.”

Crystal rose from the table with her eye on the clock, and they began to make their way back to Mr. Cord’s study, as she asked: 

“Why wouldn’t he stay?”

“I gathered because he didn’t want to.  Perhaps he was afraid he’d have to argue with Eddie about capital and labor all through lunch.  And of course he did not know that I had another beautiful daughter sleeping off the effects of a late party, or very likely he would have accepted.”

Very likely he would.

Just as they entered the study, the telephone rang.  Crystal sprang to the instrument, brushing away her father’s hand, which had moved toward it.

“It’s for me, dear,” she said, and continued, speaking into the mouthpiece:  “Yes, it’s I.” (A pause.) “Where are you?...  Oh, yes, I know the place.  I’ll be there in five minutes, in a little blue car.”  She hung up the receiver, sprang up, and looked very much surprised to see Eddie and her father still there just as before.  “Good-by, Eddie,” she said, “I’m sorry, but I have an engagement.  Good-by, father.”