"Have you engaged him?"

"N-no."

We looked at each other.

"You wouldn't accept, anyway," I began.

"How do you know?"

"You wouldn't leave town, would you?"

"Yes, if you required it."

"What? Go to Florida?"

"Y-yes--if I must."

"But think of the alligators! Think of the snakes--big, bitey snakes!"

"Gracious!" she exclaimed, eyes growing bigger.

"Indians, too!--unreconciled, sulky Seminoles! Fevers! Mud-puddles!
Spiders! And only fifty dollars a week--"

"I--I'll go," she stammered.

"Go?" I repeated, grimly; "then you've exactly two and three-quarter
seconds left for preparations."