d that all this, reduced to its last analysis, is
intended to convey the information that you have fallen in love?"

"What perfect nonsense!" Cosden replied disgustedly. "You and I aren't
school-boys any more. We're living in the twentieth century, Monty, and
people have learned that sometimes it's hard to distinguish between love
and indigestion. I won't say that marriage has come to be a business
proposition, but there's a good deal more thinking beforehand than there
used to be. A woman wants power as much as a man does, and the one way
she can get it is through her husband. It's only the young and
unsophisticated who fall for the bushel of love and a penny loaf these
days, and there are mighty few of those left. Get your basic business
principles right to begin with, I say, and the sentimental part comes
along of itself."

Huntington was convinced by this time that Cosden was seriously in
earnest. He had believed that he knew his friend well enough not to be
surprised at anything he said or did, but now he found himself not only
surprised, but distinctly shocked. He had joked with Cosden when he
first spoke of marriage, but in his heart he regarded it with a
sentimentality which no one of his friends suspected because of the
cynicisms which always sprang to his lips when the subject was
mentioned. He believed himself to have had a romance, and during these
years its memory still obtained from him a sacred observance which he
had successfully concealed from all the world. So, when Cosden coolly
announced that he had decided to select a wife just as he would have
picked out a car-load of pig iron, Huntington's first impulse was one of
resentment.

"It seems to me that you are proposing a partnership rather than a
marriage," he remarked.

"What else is marriage?" Cosden demanded. "You've hit it exactly. I
wouldn't take a man into business with me simply because I liked him,
but because I believed that he more than any one else could supplement
my work and extend my horizon. Marriage is the apotheosis of
partnership, and its success depends a great deal more upon the
psychology of selection than upon sentiment."

Huntington made no response. The first shock was tempered by his
knowledge of Cosden's character. It was natural that he should have
arrived at this conclusion, the older man told himself, and it was
curious that the thought had not occurred to Huntington sooner that the
days of their bachelor companionsh