"Now, I've given away the secret of it. Who isn't happy when he's got
what he wants--heaven without the bother of dying first? I drop into her
store two evenings a week to see her. I can't stay long or people would
talk. Then I see her now and again--other places. We have to be
careful--mighty careful."

"You must have been," said Arthur. "I never heard a hint of this; and if
anyone suspected, the whole town would be talking."

"I guess the fact that she's a Wilmot has helped us. Who'd ever suspect a
Wilmot of such a thing?"

"Why not?" said Arthur. "She couldn't do better."

Lorry looked amused. "What'd you have said a few months ago, Ranger?"

"But _my_ father was a workingman."

"That was a long time ago," Lorry reminded him. "That was when America
used to be American. Anyhow, she and I don't care, except about the
mother. You know the old lady isn't strong, especially the last year or
so. It wouldn't exactly improve her health to know there was anything
between her daughter and a washerwoman's son, a plain workingman at that.
We--Estelle and I--don't want to be responsible for any harm to her.
So--we're waiting."

"But there's the old gentleman, and Arden--_and_ Verbena!"

Lorry's cheerfulness was not ruffled by this marshaling of the full and
formidable Wilmot array. "It'd be a pleasure to Estelle to give _them_ a
shock, especially Verbena. Did you ever see Verbena's hands?"

"I don't think so," replied Arthur; "but, of course, I've heard of
them."

"Did you know she wouldn't even take hold of a knob to open a door, for
fear of stretching them?"

"She _is_ a lady, sure."

"Well, Estelle's not, thank God!" exclaimed Lorry. "She says one of her
grandmothers was the daughter of a fellow who kept a kind of pawn shop,
and that she's a case of atavism."

"But, Lorry," said Arthur, letting his train of thought come to the
surface, "this ought to rouse your ambition. You could get anywhere you
liked. To win her, I should think you'd exert yourself at the factory as
you did at home when you were going through Ann Arbor."

"To win her--perhaps I would," replied Lorry. "But, you see, I've won
her. I'm satisfied with my position. I make enough for us two to live on
as well as any sensible person'd care to live. I've got four thousand
dollars put by, and I'm insured for ten thousand, and mother's got twelve
thousand at interest that she saved out of the washing. I like to _live_.
They made me assistant foreman