diculous. You can't
ask a girl to marry you when you aren't making enough money to support
even yourself. But suppose I should go to Oklahoma where I shall soon
make a good living, and then come back and ask her, and find out that
she hates the West. Don't you see that I'm not all to blame?"

"Perhaps she wouldn't like you enough to marry you no matter where you
lived," suggested Ethel.

Edward heaved a sigh that seemed to come from his very boots and leaned
back weakly in his chair.

"There's a certain brutal frankness about you, Ethel Blue, that I never
suspected."

"I thought you were thinking about all sides of the question," Ethel
defended herself.

"Um, yes. I suppose I must admit that there is that possibility. Any way
if you'll try to get her to let me talk to her I'll be grateful to you
evermore," and Edward got up and strolled away to compliment the
participants in the program, leaving Ethel Blue more excited than she
had ever been in her life, even just before she went up in an aeroplane,
because she was touching the edges of an adventure in real life.

It was embarrassing to broach the subject to Miss Merriam. She was
sweetness itself, but she was dignified to a degree that forbade any
encroachment upon her private affairs, and twice when Ethel Blue's lips
were actually parted to plead in Edward's behalf her courage failed her.

"Mr. Clark is deaf," said Ethel Blue abruptly. "Edward Watkins didn't
say he 'thought' you were going away; he said he 'hoped' you were going
away."

"Oh!" exclaimed Miss Gertrude, turning a startled face toward Ethel.

"He hoped so because he loves you and he wants to ask you to marry him
but he can't until he has a good practice, and he doesn't know whether
you would like Oklahoma."

"Whether I'd like Oklahoma!" repeated Gertrude slowly.

"He wants to explain it all to you but you won't let him speak to you.
He's had a good practice offered him in Oklahoma, but he won't go if you
don't like Oklahoma; he'll try to work up a practice here, but it will
take such a long time."

"Ethel Blue, do you really know what you're talking about?"

"Yes, Miss Gertrude," replied Ethel, blushing uncomfortably, but keeping
on with determination. "Please don't think I'm awful, 'butting in' like
this. Dr. Watkins asked me to ask you to let him see you. He tried a
long time without telling any one; he told me when he couldn't think of
anything else to do. He didn't really know why you w