and again, but it was a sore
point with him. He wanted his son to settle down and be a real man of
affairs.

The fact that such a situation as this might militate against any
permanent arrangement with Jennie was obvious even to Lester at this
time. He thought out his course of action carefully. Of course he
would not give Jennie up, whatever the possible consequences. But he
must be cautious; he must take no unnecessary risks. Could he bring
her to Cincinnati? What a scandal if it were ever found out! Could he
install her in a nice home somewhere near the city? The family would
probably eventually suspect something. Could he take her along on his
numerous business journeys? This first one to New York had been
successful. Would it always be so? He turned the question over in his
mind.

The very difficulty gave it zest. Perhaps St. Louis, or Pittsburg,
or Chicago would be best after all. He went to these places
frequently, and particularly to Chicago. He decided finally that it
should be Chicago if he could arrange it. He could always make excuses
to run up there, and it was only a night's ride. Yes, Chicago was
best. The very size and activity of the city made concealment easy.
After two weeks' stay at Cincinnati Lester wrote Jennie that he was
coming to Cleveland soon, and she answered that she thought it would
be all right for him to call and see her. Her father had been told
about him. She had felt it unwise to stay about the house, and so had
secured a position in a store at four dollars a week. He smiled as he
thought of her working, and yet the decency and energy of it appealed
to him. "She's all right," he said. "She's the best I've come across
yet."

He ran up to Cleveland the following Saturday, and, calling at her
place of business, he made an appointment to see her that evening. He
was anxious that his introduction, as her beau, should be gotten over
with as quickly as possible. When he did call the shabbiness of the
house and the manifest poverty of the family rather disgusted him, but
somehow Jennie seemed as sweet to him as ever. Gerhardt came in the
front-room, after he had been there a few minutes, and shook hands
with him, as did also Mrs. Gerhardt, but Lester paid little attention
to them. The old German appeared to him to be merely
commonplace--the sort of man who was hired by hundreds in common
capacities in his father's factory. After some desultory conversation
Lester suggested to Jennie that