he lithe and confident
grace which made him a noticeable figure in the saddle.

"Moses!" she observed aloud, "but he has improved in looks since he
landed here--his looks, however, are a mere incident compared to the
value of his name on the business end of a check. Harpe,"--she sniggered
at a mental picture--"how will you look anyhow hanging to a man's arm?
As a clingin' vine you'll never be a conspicuous success, but you could
give a fair imitation if the game was worth the candle, and this happens
to be an instance where it is. Let's have a look at you, my child."

She took a small hand-mirror from beneath the papers of a drawer and
regarded her reflection with a critically humorous smile.

"You're not the dimpled darling you once were, Harpe," she said aloud.
"You're tired now and not at your best, but all the same there's a kind
of a hard-boiled look coming that's a warning, a hint from Father Time,
that you've got to do something in the matrimonial line before it gets
chronic."

Still viewing herself in the mirror she continued her soliloquy--

"By rights, Harpe, you ought to cut out these pique vests and manly
shirt bosoms and take to ruches and frills and ruffles. It would be the
quickest way to make a dent in his heart. He's that sort, I can see,
but, Lord! how I hate such prissy clothes! Your chance will come, Harpe,
you'll wear the orange blossoms now you've set your mind on it, and, if
the chance doesn't come soon you'll have to make it."

XVII

THE POSSIBLE INVESTOR

The slender, mild-mannered young man to whom Symes was introduced in the
office of Mudge, the promoter, was not a person Symes himself would have
singled out as one entrusted with the handling and investment of the
funds of a great estate. He had a slight impediment of speech, he was
modest to diffidence, and modesty and money was a combination not easy
for Symes to conceive, but Mudge had said anxiously upon Symes's
arrival:

"I hope you make a good impression, Symes, and can put the proposition
up to him right, because if we can land him at all we may be able to
land him for the whole cheese, and it will take a load off me if we can.
It's gettin' harder all the time to place these bonds; money is tighter
and people seem leary of irrigation projects.

"I had no idea so many people had been pecked in the head until I began
to handle this proposition. They're damned suspicious I can tell you.
It's nearly as easy to sell minin