yo. It will make
it seem like man's business between us."

"Those tricks may be all right in Wall Street, but they don't do for me.
And you've got a pretty poor opinion of me if you think I'll do it."

"Don't be quixotic," she protested, impatiently. "We are living in
up-to-date times, Captain Mayo. Some of those underlings have played a
nasty trick on you. They must be exposed."

"This is a girl's crazy notion!"

"Captain Mayo, is this the way you help me pay my debt?"

"You don't owe me anything."

"And now you pay me an insult! Are my honor as a girl and my life worth
nothing? You have saved both."

"I don't know how to talk to you. I haven't had any experience in
talking with women. I simply say that I'm not going to your father in
any such manner. Certainly not!"

"Don't you realize what I have offered you?" she pleaded. "You are
throwing my sacrifice in my face. As the case stands now, I can hurry
off to the home of some girl friend and make up a little story of a
foolish lark, and my father will never know what has been happening. He
expects me to do a lot of silly things."

"That's your business--and his," he returned, dryly.

"Captain Mayo, I have been trying to show you that I am fit to be
considered something besides a silly girl. I wanted you to know that
I have a sense of obligation. The plan may seem like a girl's romantic
notion. But it isn't. It's bold, and your case heeds boldness. I was
trying to show you that I'm not a coward. I was going to confess to my
father what I have done and start on the level with him. You throw it
all in my face--you insult my plan by calling it crazy."

"It is," he insisted, doggedly. "And I'm in bad enough as it is!"

"Oh, you're afraid, then?"

He frowned. Her sneer seemed gratuitous injury.

He did not understand that variety of feminine guile which seeks to goad
to action one who refuses to be led.

"I admire boldness in a man when his case is desperate and he is trying
to save himself. I have lived among men who are bold in going after what
they want."

"I have had a little experience with that kind of land pirates, and I
don't like the system."

"I shall not make any unnecessary sacrifices," she de-clared, tartly,
but there were tears in her eyes. "I did what I could to help you when
you were trying to save me. Why are you so ungenerous as to refuse to
help me now?"

"It's taking advantage of you--of your position."

"But I offer it--I beg of