he had come to regard it as altogether too incongruous an affair to be
viewed favorably. What right had any man to her? What manner of man
could possibly be worthy of her, much less the stupid blockhead who was
thrusting himself upon her as Long was?

"Well, he's looking for you, Mr. Henley," the clerk said. "It must be
important, for he's been to the bank and post-office three times since
he heard you'd got in. It really looks like he's in trouble of some
sort."

"Business gone crooked?" Henley inquired, as he watched the clerk's face
with almost anxious eyes. "Maybe he's been buying futures?"

"Oh no, it ain't that!" the young man hastened to say. "He don't
speculate in anything. He's dead sure of everything he touches. No, it
ain't that, and business never was brisker, but we boys are doing it
all. He ain't much help; don't do anything but write letters and tear
'em up, and talk about marryin' to every man, woman, an' child that
happens in. He was all right and sound, and regular as a clock, till you
fetched that girl in from over your way and introduced him. Come down
right away, Mr. Henley. I'll tell 'im I saw you."

As Henley turned away to attend to his consignment of cotton in the
office of the compress he bit his lip and frowned darkly.

"If the dang fool thinks I'm going down there to be buttonholed for
hours to hear his tale of woe, he's certainly off his nut," he muttered,
angrily. "I've got other matters to attend to. I don't believe she is at
all struck with him, nohow. It don't look like she'd put 'im off like
she does and keep him floundering in so much hot water if she thought
much of him. He was there yesterday. I wonder what ails him now? She
didn't take 'im out to church. Little Joe is at her house, but he is
doing well enough for her to spare the time; I wonder if she was ashamed
to be seen out with him after that first splurge. I don't know; she
certainly is a plumb mystery to me."

His business over, he skirted around Long's establishment and made his
way through an isolated alley to the wagon-yard where he had left his
horse and buggy. He was just congratulating himself on his escape from
the storekeeper, when Long suddenly broke upon his vision as he plunged
incontinently through the big gateway. With an uneasy look in his eyes,
and with a face drawn and serious, the storekeeper came striding toward
him.

"Hello!" he panted. "I've been everywhere looking for you. You are as
slippery as