y satisfactory
thing that my father-in-law should own enough stock in the company--"

"That will do," she interrupted him icily. "That is precisely what I
have charged. We will consider this subject as ended, Mr. Turner; as
one never to be referred to again."

"We'll do nothing of the sort," returned Sam flat-footedly. "I've been
composing this speech for the last two weeks and I'm going to deliver
it. I'm not going to have it wasted. I've unconsciously been
rehearsing it every place I went. Even up in Flatbush, showing a man
the superior advantages of that yellow-mud district, I found myself
repeating sentence number twelve. It's been the first thing I thought
of in the morning and the last thing I thought of at night. It's been
with me all day, riding and walking and talking and eating and drinking
and just breathing. Now I'm going to go through with it.

"I--I--confound it all! I've forgotten how I was going to say it now!
After all, though, it only amounted to this: I love you! I want you to
know it and understand it. I love you and love you and love you! I
never loved any woman before in my life. I never had time. I didn't
know what it was like. If I had I'd have fought it off until I met
you, because I could not afford it for anybody short of you. It takes
my whole attention. It distracts my mind entirely from other things.
I can't think of anything else consecutively and connectedly. I--I'm
sorry you take the attitude you do about this thing, but--I'm not going
to accept your viewpoint. You've got to look at this thing differently
to understand it.

"I know you've been glad I loved you. You were glad the first day we
met, and you always will be glad! Whatever you have to say about it
just now don't count. I'm going to let you alone a while to think it
over, and then I'm coming back to tell you more about it," and with
that Sam stalked from the room, leaving Miss Josephine Stevens gasping,
dazed, quite sure that he was unforgivable, indignant with everything,
still rankling, in spite of all Sam had said, with the thought that she
had been made a mere part of a commercial transaction. Why, it was
like those barbarous countries she had read about, where wives are
bought and sold! Preposterous and unbearable!

While she was in this storm of mixed emotions her father came in upon
her, this time seriously perplexed.

"What has happened to Sam Turner?" he demanded. "He slammed out of the