banker blinked at her. "You heard him? When? And how came you to
be near him?"

"It was on the Sunday after the mar--the foolish ceremony. As Mr.
Sawyer walked off with me from the church door Mr. Lyman joined us."

"Joined you! The impudent scoundrel! What right had he to join you,
and why did you permit it?"

"He took the right and we couldn't help ourselves. At least I couldn't
and Mr. Sawyer didn't try to."

"I wish I had been there."

"You were just in front, but you didn't look around."

"Well, and then what happened?"

"Why, during the talk that followed, Mr. Lyman called him a coward."

"Mr. Sawyer is a gentleman and he couldn't resent it at the time in
the presence of a lady."

"He has had time enough since," she said with scorn.

Mrs. McElwin came from the window and sat down near her husband. The
banker looked hard at his daughter, and a sudden tangling of the
lines on his face showed that the first words that flew to the verge
of utterance had been suppressed, and that he was determined to be
calm.

"He has had time, but he has also had consideration," said McElwin.
"To resent an insult is sometimes more of a scandal than to let it
pass. He hesitated to involve your name."

He was now so quiet, so plausible in his gentleness that the young
woman felt ashamed of the quick spirit she had shown.

"Sit down," he said, and she obeyed, with her hands lying listlessly
together in her lap.

"Your mother and I know what is best for you," he said. A slight
shudder seemed to pass through the wife's dignified shoulders. "You
have always been the object of our most tender solicitude," he went
on. "And if I have been determined, it has been for your own ultimate
good. I admit that there is not much romance about Mr. Sawyer. He is a
keen, open-eyed, practical business man, with money out at interest,
and with money lying in my bank. His family is excellent. His father
was, for many years, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and his
grandfather was a judge. And I believe as firmly as I ever believed
anything, that he will be a very rich man. He is constantly widening
out and will not confine himself to the buying and selling of mules.
His judgment of the markets is fine, and I repeat that he will be a
very rich man. In looking over the field I don't know another man I
would rather have associated with me."

His wife, long since convinced by his practical logic, looked up with
a quiet smile of approval. T