ell acquainted----"

"Pardon me," the President interrupted; "that is precisely the point at
which I wished to arrive--your present estimate of this young man. I
have nothing to say about your little diversion on the engine. You are
old enough to settle these small questions of the proprieties for
yourself. But touching this young mechanic, it might be as well for us
to understand each other. Have you fully considered the probable
consequences of your most singular infatuation?"

It was a ruthless question, and the hot blood of resentment set its
signals flying in Gertrude's cheeks. Up to that evening, she had thought
of the passenger agent only as an agreeable young man of a somewhat
unfamiliar type, of whom she would like to know more; but Brockway's
moment of abandonment in the cab of the 926 had planted a seed which
threatened to germinate quickly in the warmth of the present discussion.

"I'm not quite sure that I understand you," she said, picking and
choosing among the phrases for the least incendiary. "Would you mind
telling me in so many words, just what you mean?"

"Not in the least. A year ago you met this young man in a most casual
way, and--to put it rather brutally--fell in love with him. I haven't
the slightest idea that he cares anything for you in your proper person,
or that he would have thrust himself upon us to-day if he had known that
your private fortune hangs upon the event of your marriage under certain
conditions which you evidently purpose to ignore. If, after the
object-lesson you had at the dinner-table this evening, you still prefer
this young fortune-hunter to your cousin Chester, I presume we shall all
have to submit; but you ought at least to tell us what we are to
expect."

If he had spared the epithets, she could have laughed at the baseless
fabric of supposition, but the contemptuous sentence passed upon
Brockway put her quickly upon his defence, and, incidentally, did more
to further that young man's cause than any other happening of that
eventful day.

"I suppose you have a right to say and think what you please about me,"
she said, trying vainly to be dispassionate; "but you might spare Mr.
Brockway. He didn't invite himself to dinner; and it was I who proposed
the walk on the platform and the ride on the engine."

"Humph! you are nothing if not loyal. Nevertheless, I wish you might
look the facts squarely in the face."

Gertrude knew there were no facts, of the kind he mea