PIKE [mildly].  Not without seeing the young man.

ETHEL.  And you could have arranged the settlement in the same way.

PIKE [smiling].  Settlement?  You seem to have settled it pretty well without me.

ETHEL.  You do not understand.  An alliance of this sort always entails a certain settlement.

PIKE.  Yes, ma’am—­when folks get married they generally settle down considerable.

ETHEL [impatiently].  Please listen.  If you were at all a man of the world, I should not have to explain that in marrying into a noble house I bring my dot, my dowry—­

PIKE [puzzled]. Money, you mean?

ETHEL.  If you choose to put it that way.

PIKE.  You mean you want to put aside something of your own to buy a lot and fix up a place to start housekeeping—­

ETHEL.  No, no!  I mean a settlement upon Mr. St. Aubyn directly.

PIKE.  You mean you want to give it to him?

ETHEL.  If that’s the only way to make you understand—­yes!

PIKE [amused].  How much do you want to give him?

ETHEL [coldly].  A hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

PIKE [incredulously].  Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars!

ETHEL. Precisely that!

PIKE [amazed].  Well, he has made you care for him!  I guess he must be the Prince of the World, honey!  He must be a great man.  I expect you’re right about me not meetin’ him!  I prob’ly wouldn’t stack up very high alongside of a man that’s big enough for you to think as much of as you do of him. [Smiling.] Why, I’d have to squeeze every bit of property your pa left you.

ETHEL.  Is it your property?

PIKE [gently].  I’ve worked pretty hard to take care of it for you.

ETHEL [rising impulsively and coming to him].  Forgive me for saying that.

PIKE [smiling].  Pshaw!

ETHEL.  It was unworthy of me, unworthy of the higher and nobler things that life calls me to live up to [proudly]—­that I shall live up to.  The money means nothing to me—­I am not thinking of that.  It is merely a necessary form.

PIKE.  Have you talked with Mr. St. Aubyn about this settlement—­this present you want to make him?

ETHEL.  Not with him.

PIKE [amused].  I thought not!  You’ll see—­he wouldn’t take it if I’d let you give it to him.  A fine man like that wants to make his own way, of course.  Mighty few men like to have fun poked at ’em about livin’ on their wife’s money.

ETHEL [despairingly].  Oh, I can’t make you understand!  A settlement isn’t a gift.

PIKE [as if humoring her].  How’d you happen to decide that just a hundred and fifty thousand pounds was what you wanted to give him?

ETHEL.  It was Mr. St. Aubyn’s father who fixed the amount.

PIKE.  His father?  What’s he got to do with it?