you. So, of course, you are at liberty to break the solemn promises you made to me, and to ignore your duty toward Fanny, and to marry this Frenchwoman with whom you seem to have become so infatuated; and I can do nothing to prevent you. But if you see fit to take this course, I may tell you frankly, once for all,—and you know that, unlike my son, I am not a person to break my word,—I may tell you once for all that so long as I live I will never consent to see you, or to speak to you, or to have anything to do with you, again. If you can stoop to such disgraceful conduct, I shall never more acknowledge you as a child of mine. You had better understand this clearly. To employ your own language, you would only be uselessly deceiving yourself to doubt it Unless, immediately upon the receipt of this letter, you come home, and crave Fanny's and my forgiveness upon your bended knees, and at once make her your wife, you need never hope to be recognized as my son again. Therefore it is for you to choose between your Frenchwoman and your mother. I will not tolerate any dilly-dallying, any discussion. I have spoken my last word; and you know me well enough to be aware that I always mean exactly what I say.
"Now, furthermore. You will remember that in his will your father left me all his property absolutely, in fee simple. Of course it was his intention, and until now it has been mine as well, that upon my death that property should pass on to you. But your father made no such condition in his will, and I am informed by my lawyer that I have full power to dispose of every penny precisely as I desire. Well, then, if you decide to marry your Frenchwoman, I will, besides immediately cutting off your allowance, cause my will to be altered in such a way that upon my death you will not receive a single dollar, but every cent will go to my beloved niece, Fanny Clark. I am sure, if your father were alive, he would approve of this course. You may calculate from this how much money you and your French wife will have to live on. Foolishly, little foreseeing the sort of treatment I was to receive at your hands, I made you a present, when you came of age, of the sum of ten thousand dollars in government bonds. My lawyer informs me that I cannot compel you to return that sum. If you were a man of honor, you would return it without being compelled. But by marrying your Mademoiselle you will prove that you are in no sense a man of honor; and so I shall not expect that restitution from you. Well, ten thousand dollars in government bonds will yield you an annual income of about four hundred dollars. I should like to know how you and your wife will manage to get along on that; you, who are accustomed to every luxury, and who for the past five years have never spent less than twenty-five hundred dollars a year. How much do you suppose you would be able to earn? Not much by your literature, I suspect. You have no profession. And with neither a profession nor a large capital, what could you do? Well, you might obtain a clerkship at ten dollars a week, or you might get a position as conductor on a horse-car, or something like that. Imagine the pride and the pleasure your mother would take in seeing her son engaged in such a dignified and distinguished occupation!
"Now, that is all I have to say. If you come home, and confess
