upon the fortunate man who leads her to the altar!" said he, casting
the fatal die.

"No; but a separate house and lot wouldn't be despised, I should say."

"Nonsense. By the way, Eddie, this must not go any farther. It's
strictly entre nous. I don't want to have the dear girl pestered to
death by fortune hunters. On his wedding day the man who marries
Martha is to have the equivalent of her weight in double eagles. Isn't
that ra--rather handsome?"

He sank back and waited for the seed to sink deeply into Ten Eyck
soil. Eddie's eyelids flickered. The grin of a Cheshire cat came to
his lips involuntarily and remained there without modification for the
matter of an hour or two.

"Great!" he said at last.

"I must be on my way," observed the wily step-father, beating a
retreat so hastily that Eddie missed the opportunity to scoff. But the
contemplative smile remained just as he had left it.

Several days passed before the two met again. The General had sowed
wisely, and he was reasonably certain of the harvest. He knew that it
would be hard for young Ten Eyck to bring himself to the sacrificial
altar; but that he would come and would bend his neck was a foregone
conclusion. He went on the theory that if you give a man rope enough
he'll hang himself, and he felt that Eddie was almost at the end of
his rope in these cruel days.