"Then I paid my visit to Mr. Beverly, but with no cowhide. 'Mr. Beverly,'
said I, 'I want to announce to you my engagement to Miss Ethel Lansing,
whose Michigan copper land you have lately acquired. I hope that you
bought some for your mother.'"

"Those," concluded Mr. Richard Field, "are the circumstances attending my
engagement which I felt might interest you. And now, Ethel, tell your
story, if they'll listen."

"Richard," said Ethel, "that is the story I was going to tell."