errible mistake! Even Margery had fallen back a step or two and was
clinging to her father's hand in the greatest amazement.

"I--I think I was mad, friends and fellow-workers," he exclaimed,
huskily. "I believe I was too precipitate in this affair.

"It is so long since I was young I--I had forgotten that it is the
custom of men now, as in the years long since gone by, to speak to a
maiden of love before he said anything of marriage.

"It did not occur to me that the great millionaire wanted my little girl
for his wife, as he now says.

"Hear me, friends, one and all. I most heartily regret causing this
disturbance and I move that we return to our places, as our employer
suggests."

There was a murmur of assent among the throng; then, all in a body, they
moved forward, entering the building again; and in less than five
minutes' time matters were moving on quite as smoothly once more as
though no sudden upheaval had ever occurred in the great dry goods
establishment.

Mr. Conway, however, was too upset to attend further to his duties that
afternoon, and accepted the manager's suggestion that he should go to
his home, Margery accompanying him.

Meanwhile Kendale had thrown himself down into the nearest chair,
breathing hard, feeling like a general who had achieved a most wonderful
victory.

"A few soft, silvery words saved me this time," he muttered, "but it
throws the girl on my hands. Well, I suppose I will have to propose
marriage to her now--every one expects it; there would be a terrible
rumpus kicked up if I did not. Well, let there be an engagement between
us; that doesn't mean that there will be a marriage, by any means. The
engagement can drag along three or four years, and then we can break
off. By that time I shall be ready to marry the heiress of the Fairfax
millions. Ah, how much easier it is to scheme for a fortune than to toil
for one, as most poor mortals do."

The entrance of the manager with the bill for the hundred and
twenty-five thousand put an end to his musings and plans for the
present. Mr. Wright emerged from the office ten minutes later with a
very troubled expression on his face. It was dearly patent to him that
Mr. Lester Armstrong did not care how badly the business was crippled,
so long as he secured the yacht and the fast horses.

From that first day, so full of awkward and almost fatal mistakes,
Kendale spent as little time as was absolutely necessary in the
establishment of M