y heart to
you more than once. I am discouraged. I have wooed, yes, and won, June
Jenrys with hardly a thought of how I could care for her or for
myself. Gad! How thoughtless and selfish I have been! And yet you will
think me an ass when I say that, up to this moment, I have never
troubled myself nor been troubled about money matters. So help me
heaven, Masters, I never once thought of her fortune, or my lack of
it, in all my wooing of June Jenrys!'

'I don't doubt it,' I said easily, 'not in the least. It's not in
nature that you should be, at your age, half man and half financial
machine. It's contrary to your education.' And, smiling inwardly, I
began deliberately to fold a cigarette paper.

'My education!' He turned upon me sharply. 'What--I beg your pardon,
Masters, but what the deuce do you know about my education?'

'I'm a very observing person,' I replied amiably; 'haven't you noticed
it?'

He was silent so long that, when I had finished making my cigarette
and lighted it, I asked, after a puff or two: 'Lossing, is there
anything I can say or do that will help you? I see that you are
troubled. If it's money only, bless me, your talents will stand you in
money's stead. Brains have a money value in this country, you know.'

It was more than I at first meant to say. I was treading on delicate
ground, and I knew it.

'Brains! Well, there it is! There's where my "education," as you say,
stands in the way. It's no use, Masters, our points of view are not
the same. To understand mine you must know what my past has been. That
would convince you how little my brain could be relied upon to stand
me in lieu of a fortune in this pushing, rushing, electric America of
yours. And my story--well, if I am to tell it, I must tell it to her
first, and--good heavens!' he groaned, 'when I have told it, I shall
seem to her more like a fortune-hunter than even now.'

He was in the depths, and if I meant to speak first, now was my time.
I tossed my cigarette into the water, and sat erect and facing him.

'What would you give,' I asked slowly, 'if I could show you a way
out--a safe and right and happy way?'

'Give! Man alive! I'd give you my gratitude all my life long, first,
and after that anything you could ask and I could grant.
But--pshaw!--I know you're immensely clever, Masters, and I know
you're my friend, but----'

'There, don't say anything that you will have to retract; and now, I
won't presume to advise you, sir,