My brother, sir, may be pig-headed--sit down, Susanna!" "You and I, sir," said Garrett Wesley, "as childless men, are in no position to judge a parent's feelings." "Children?
Let me tell you that I had a son, sir, and he broke my heart.

He is in India now, I believe; a middle-aged rake.

I give you leave to find and adopt _him_, so long as you don't ask me to see his face again.

One was too many for me, and here's a woman with ten children alive--Heaven knows how many she's buried--ten children alive and half-clothed, and herself the youngest of twenty-five!" He broke off and chuckled.

"Did you ever hear tell, sir, what old Dr.Martin said after baptizing Susanna here?
Someone asked him 'How many children had Dr.Annesley ?' 'I forget for the moment,' said the doctor, but 'tis either two dozen or a quarter of a hundred.' And here's a woman, sir, with such a sense of her offspring's importance that she higgles over accepting a fortune for one of 'em!" "Can you suffer this, ma'am ?" Garrett Wesley began.