"Not quite yet, sir"--Harry jumped before the door;
"you give me the alternative of being what I call dishonorable
or losing the woman I love!" He pronounced the last word
with a little effort and his lips closed sharply as his
teeth shut under them. "Well, I decline the alternative.
I shall try to do my duty and get the wife I want, BOTH."

"Well, you give me fair warning, don't you?" said Armorer.

Harry held out his hand, saying, "I am sorry that I detained you.
I didn't mean to be rude." There was something boyish and
simple about the action and the tone, and Armorer laughed.
As Harry attended him through the outer office to the door,
he complimented the shops.

"Miss Armorer and Mrs. Ellis have promised to give me the
pleasure of showing them to them this afternoon," said Harry;
"can't I show them and part of our city to you, also?
It has changed a good deal since you left it."

The remark threw Armorer off his balance; for a rejected suitor this
young man certainly kept an even mind. But he had all the helplessness
of the average American with regard to his daughter's amusements.
The humor in the situation took him; and it cannot be denied that
he began to have a vivid curiosity about Harry. In less time than it
takes to read it, his mind had swung round the circle of these various
points of view, and he had blandly accepted Harry's invitation.
But he mopped a warm and furrowed brow, outside, and drew a prodigious
sigh as he opened the note-book in his hand and crossed out, "_See L._"
"That young fellow ain't all conscience," said he, "not by a long shot."