Mr. Brewster remained entirely unsoftened by this manly appeal to
his better feelings.

"What the devil do you mean by marrying my daughter?"

Archie reflected.

"Well, it sort of happened, don't you know! You know how these
things ARE! Young yourself once, and all that. I was most
frightfully in love, and Lu seemed to think it wouldn't be a bad
scheme, and one thing led to another, and--well, there you are,
don't you know!"

"And I suppose you think you've done pretty well for yourself?"

"Oh, absolutely! As far as I'm concerned, everything's topping! I've
never felt so braced in my life!"

"Yes!" said Mr. Brewster, with bitterness, "I suppose, from your
view-point, everything IS 'topping.' You haven't a cent to your
name, and you've managed to fool a rich man's daughter into marrying
you. I suppose you looked me up in Bradstreet before committing
yourself?"

This aspect of the matter had not struck Archie until this moment.

"I say!" he observed, with dismay. "I never looked at it like that
before! I can see that, from your point of view, this must look like
a bit of a wash-out!"