if I feel so sure, and if I am ready to trust him, why shouldn't papa
be?"

The doctor smiled at her ingenuousness.

"Your father is right in claiming that he ought to be made acquainted
with the young man's reason for conduct which looks quite unwarrantable
on the face of it," said he.

But Doreen gave a little sigh.

"I don't think that a man has a right to turn inquisitor over another
man, just because the second man is ready to marry the first man's
daughter," said she. "And I'm sure papa wouldn't have stood it when
_he_ was young."

The doctor laughed.

"He ought to put up with any amount of questioning rather than lose the
girl of his choice," said he decisively. "And if he has the stuff of a
man in him he will do so."

"But he is unhappy. I know it," said Doreen.

"Unhappy!" cried the doctor, indignantly. "And what's he got to be
unhappy about, I should like to know? He ought to be thanking Heaven on
his knees all day long for getting such a nice girl to promise to marry
him. That's the attitude a young man used to take when I was young."

"Did you go down on your knees all day long when Mrs. Haselden promised