or--and I reply with candied brutality,
that I have thought that all along. If you are averse to my view
of the matter, you must look out of the window the whole time that
I continue, for once entered I always fight to a finish and I
cannot retire to my corner on this auspicious occasion without
announcing through a trumpet that even if Jack is a most idiotic
fellow I never have caught the microbe from him, and, as a
sequence, have always seen clear through and out of the other side
of the whole situation. Of course I should not say this to any
woman but you because it would not have any meaning to her, but,
between you and me all things are printed in plain black and white
and, therefore, I respectfully submit a program consisting of the
two o'clock train Tuesday and myself, to be recognized by a
beaming look of burning joy, upon the platform. Beyond that you
may confide yourself to waxing waxy in my hands. They are not bad
hands to be in as your brother and whatever-you-call-Jack can
testify. I will lay my lines in the dark to the end that you may
bloom in the sun.

Trust me. You need do no more--except buy your ticket.

The two o'clock on Tuesday. You can easily remember it by the
T's--if you don't get mixed with three o'clock on Thursday. Try
remembering it by the 2's. A safe way would be to put it down.

Yours to obey,

Herbert Kendrick Mitchell.

P.S. Please recollect that I am only handsome according to the
good old proverb, and do not mistake me for an enterprising
hackman.

Mrs. Rosscott clapped her hands with delight when she finished the letter.
She was overjoyed at the success of her "opening play," and she wrote her
new correspondent two lines accepting his invitation, and went down on the
appointed train on the appointed day. He met her at the depot and they
divined one another at the first glance. It was impossible not to know so
pretty a woman--or so homely a man. For the ancestors of Mitchell had worn
kilts and red hair in centuries gone by, and although he proved the truth
of the red-hair proposition, no one would ever believe that anything of
his build could ever have been induced to have put itself into
kilts--knowingly. Furthermore, his voice had a crick in it, and went by
jerks, and his eyebrows sy