"you see how it is. I want a man one
can RESPECT, even if he is a peer. He may have as many titles as dad has
dollars, but he must be a MAN!"

"That is so," said Ri, with additional emphasis.

"I can guarantee Lord Tulliwuddle as a model for a sculptor and an
eligible candidate for canonization," declared the Count.

"I guess we want something grittier than that," said Ri.

"And what there is of it sounds almost too good news to be true," added
his sister. "I don't want a man like a stained-glass window, Count;
because for one thing I couldn't get him."

"If you specify your requirements we shall do our best to satisfy you,"
replied the Count imperturbably.

"Well, now," said Eleanor thoughtfully, "I may just as well tell you
that if I'm going to take a peer--and I must own peers are rather my
fancy at present--it was Mohammedan pashas last year, wasn't it, Ri?"
("That is so," from Ri.)--"If I AM going to take a peer, I must have
a man that LOOKS a peer. I've been plagued with so many undersized
and round-shouldered noblemen that I'm beginning to wonder whether the
aristocracy gets proper nourishment. How tall is Lord Tulliwuddle?"

"Six feet and half an inch."

"That's something more like!" said Ri; and his sister smiled her
acquiescence.

"And does he weigh up to it?" she inquired.

"Fourteen, twelve, and three-quarters."

"What's that in pounds, Ri? We don't count people in stones in America."

A tense frown, a nervous twitching of the lip, and in an instant the
young financier produced the answer:

"Two hundred and nine pounds all but four ounces."

"Well," said Eleanor, "it all depends on how he holds himself. That's a
lot to carry for a young man."

"He holds himself like one of his native pine-trees, Miss Maddison!"

She clapped her hands.

"Now I call that just a lovely metaphor, Count Bunker!" she cried.
"Oh, if he's going to look like a pine, and walk like the pipers at the
Torrydhulish gathering, and really be a chief like Fergus MacIvor or
Roderick Dhu, I do believe I'll actually fall in love with him!"

"Say, Count," interposed Ri, "I guess we've heard he's half German."

"It was indeed in Germany that he learned his thorough grasp of
politics, statesmanship, business, and finance, and acquired his lofty
ambitions and indomitable perseverance."

"He'll do, Eleanor," said the young man. "That's to say, if he is
anything like the prospectus."

His sister made no immediate reply. She