ate the
object of your visit."

"No, sir. We can do that easy enough," said McElwin. Then he thrust
his hand into his pocket and drew forth a paper. "Mr. Lyman, we have
here a petition to the Chancery Court, asking for the setting aside of
a ridiculous marriage, the laughing-stock of all matrimonial
ceremonies. The entrapped lady's name has been affixed, and we now
ask, sir, that you append your signature."

He stepped forward to the table near which Lyman was sitting, and
spread out the paper. Lyman smiled and shook his head. "This is so
sudden," he remarked, and Warren tittered.

"Sudden, sir?"

"Yes, not unexpected, but sudden. I must have time to think."

"To think? How long, sir?"

"Well, say about six months."

"There's no use wasting words with this fellow," said Sawyer. "We'll
make him sign it."

Lyman looked at him. "I understand that you are a buyer and seller of
mules," he remarked. "That may account for your impulsiveness. But at
present you are not in the mule market, that is, not as a buyer."

"Come," said McElwin, "we don't want any trouble."

"But if we have it," Lyman replied, "let it come on before it is time
to go to press. Warren wants news."

McElwin bit his brown lip, and Sawyer fumed.

"Don't put it off too long," said Warren. "I've hired a negro to turn
the press."

"This is infamous!" the banker shouted, stamping the floor. "It is
beyond belief." Then he strove to calm himself. "Mr. Lyman, I ask you,
as a man, to sign this petition."

"The interview has wrought upon my nerves, Mr. McElwin, and if I
should sign it now the Court might look upon my signature as obtained
under coercion."

"Ridiculous, sir. I never saw a man more quiet."

"That is the mistake of your agitated eye. My nerves are in a tangle."

"Let me fix it," said Sawyer, swelling toward Lyman.

Lyman smiled at him: "You are pretty heavy in the shoulders, Mr.
Sawyer, but you slope down too fast. I don't believe your legs are
very good. You might say that I don't slope enough, or not at all,
but I'm wire, Yale-drawn. You are meaty, vealy, the boys would say,
but if you think that you'd feel healthier and more contented toward
the world after a closer association with me--"

"Come, none of that," the banker interrupted. And then to Lyman he
added: "I appeal to your reason, sir."

"A bad thing to appeal to when it sits against you. It is like
appealing to a wind blowing toward you. But before I forget it I
sh