You might see mother, Hemmy; but I'm afraid it won't do a bit of good-mother has ideas all her own."

"And if mother refuses?" queried the young man.

The girl raised her shapely shoulders and threw her hands outward; palms up. "If I were a star reporter on a great metropolitan daily," she said, "I should, I think, be more resourceful than your helpless inquiry indicates you to be."

"I suppose that you'd run off with the girl?" he said, laughing.

"That is precisely what I should do," replied Miss Gwendolyn Bass.

"Well, so shall I," he cried.

"With the gardener's daughter, I presume?" asked an acid voice behind them.

The two turned surprised faces in the direction of the speaker. Mr. Hemmington Main rose, rather red of face, and bowed low.

"Mrs. Bass, I'm-I'm mighty sorry," he stammered, "that you chanced to overhear our joking remarks. It was my intention to come to you and Mr. Bass and ask your daughter's hand in a perfectly regular manner. I love- "

The older woman stopped him with uplifted hand. "It is useless, Mr. Main," she said, coldly. "I have other-higher ambitions for my only child. Good afternoon, Mr. Main," and she extended her hand to lay it upon the arm of her daughter. "Come, Gwendolyn!"

It was ten days later that Mr. Hemmington Main received in his morning's mail a letter superscribed in the scrawly and beloved backhand with which he was so familiar-a letter which, after several pages of far greater interest to Mr. Main than to us, ended with: "and so Mother is dragging me off to Europe, ostensibly to forget you; but actually, I am positive, to barter me for a title with a red neck and soiled linen. Father is as mad as I; but helpless. He is for you, horse, foot and artillery-just as I knew he would be. Go and see him-you can weep on one another's shoulder; and in the mean time, Hemmy, take it from me, I'll never, never, never, never marry anybody but you."

And so it was that within that very day Mr. Hemmington Main was ushered into the private office of Abner J. Bass, where the older man greeted his visitor with the kindly smile and the warm handclasp which had been such important factors in the upbuilding of the Bass millions.

"I know why you have called, my boy," he said, without waiting for Mr. Main to explain his mission. "If you hadn't come I should have sent for you-I need your help. Mrs. Bass is, naturally, ambitious for the future of Gwendolyn-so am I; but, unfortunately, in this instance we are not agreed as to what constitutes the elements of a desirable future for our daughter. I could not get away at this time to accompany them abroad-not that I could have accomplished anything had I gone; for Mrs. Bass is, as you know, a very strong character-but I feel that you might accomplish a great deal were you on the spot. Will you go?"

Mr. Hemmington Main was quite taken off his feet by the suddenness of this unexpected proposition or, it would have been closer to the truth to have said that he was almost taken off his feet, for Mr. Main was never quite taken off them in any emergency.