called her up by telephone
precisely as if nothing had happened, and explained to her how good
his prospects were; good enough, in fact, he added, that he could look
matrimony very squarely in the eye.

"Allow me to congratulate you," said Agnes sweetly. "I presume I'll
read presently about the divorce that precedes your marriage," and she
hung up the receiver; all of which, had Bobby but paused to reflect
upon it, was a very fair indication that all he had to do was to jump
in his automobile and call on Aunt Constance Elliston, force his way
upon the attention of Agnes and browbeat that young lady into an
immediate marriage. He chose, on the contrary, to take the matter more
gloomily, and Johnson, after worrying about him for three dismal days,
consulted Biff Bates. But Biff, when the problem was propounded to
him, only laughed.

"His steady has lemoned him," declared Biff. "Any time a guy's making
plenty of money and got good health and ain't married, and goes around
with an all-day grouch, you can play it for a one to a hundred
favorite that his entry's been scratched in the solitaire diamond
stakes."

"Uh-huh," responded the taciturn Johnson, and stalked back with grim
purpose to the Electric Company's office, of which Bobby and Johnson
and Applerod had taken immediate possession.

The next morning Johnson handed to Bobby one of the familiar gray
envelopes, inscribed:

_To My Son Upon the Occasion of His Having a Misunderstanding
with Agnes Elliston_

He submitted the envelope with many qualms and misgivings, though
without apology, but one glance at Bobby's face as that young
gentleman read the inscription relieved him of all responsibility in
the matter, for if ever a face showed guilt, that face was the face of
Bobby Burnit. In the privacy of the president's office Bobby read the
briefest note of the many that his forethoughted father had left
behind him in Johnson's charge:

"You're a blithering idiot!"

That was all. Somehow, that brief note seemed to lighten the gloom, to
lift the weight, to remove some sort of a barrier, and he actually
laughed. Immediately he called up the Ellistons. He received the
information from the housekeeper that Agnes and Aunt Constance had
gone to New York on an extended shopping trip, and thereby he lost his
greatest and only opportunity to prove that he had at last been
successful in business. That day, all the stock which Frank L. Sharpe
had held began t