because he knew that he was the opposite of himself--that he was a
delving, thorough, shrewd, keen office man--and able too. How genuinely
able Williams did not yet know. He himself was to be the showy partner,
the originator of schemes and procurer of business, the brilliant man
before the world. So there was some method in his madness. And with it
all went a cheery, incisive, humorous point of view which was congenial
and diverting to Flossy.

He went away, but he came back once--twice--thrice in quick succession.
On business, so he said casually to Mr. and Mrs. Price, but his language
to their daughter was a declaration of personal devotion. It remained
for her to say whether she would marry him or no. Of one thing she was
sure without need of reflection, that she loved him ardently. As a
consequence she surrendered at once, though, curiously enough, she was
conscious when she permitted him to kiss her with effusion that he was
not the sort of man she had intended to marry--that he was not fit in
her sense of the word. Yet she was determined to marry him, and from the
moment their troth was plighted she found herself his eager and faithful
ally, dreaming and scheming on their joint account. She would help him
to succeed; they would conquer the world together; she would never doubt
his ability to conquer it. And in time--yes, in time they would make
even the Morton Prices notice them.

And so after some bewildered opposition on the part of Mr. Price, who
was alternately appalled and fascinated by the magniloquent language of
his would-be son-in-law, they were married. Flossy gave but a single
sign to her husband that she understood him and recognized what they
really represented. It was one evening a few months after they had set
up housekeeping while they were walking home from the theatre. They had
previously dined at Delmonico's, and the cost of the evening's