ble discretion
which had characterized the head of Walkingshaw & Gilliflower.

"My dear Heriot, this sounds suspicious."

He realized now the penalties for indiscretion.

"I am going to see him on particularly private business. We do not wish
it to get talked about."

He thought he had recovered his old manner to a nicety, but what was his
surprise when his cousin shook a well-manicured finger in his face, and
cried--

"What a naughty boy you are getting! I wonder whether I ought to tell on
you or not?"

This time he tried another of his ingenuous smiles.

"_You_ wouldn't tell on me, Madge!"

"Oh, indeed! Why should I care about your reputation?"

Mr. Walkingshaw deliberately faced the situation. He had not meant to
commit himself that evening--not, in fact, till he had enjoyed an
untrammeled week in town; but he had placed his reputation in this
charming lady's hands, and he realized he must obtain a receipt for it.

"Don't you care about me?" he inquired tenderly.

"What--what do you mean, Heriot?" she faltered.

"You are everything to me," he answered, and looking into her black
eyes, inwardly decided that this expressed very little more than the
precise truth.

* * * * *

It was a very few minutes after this that he found himself seated very
close to the sympathetic widow's side, with one arm encircling a
considerable segment of what had been a remarkably trim waist, and the
other hand toying with a collection of ruby and amethyst rings.

"I do hope I shan't disappoint you, Heriot," she murmured.

"No fear of that, my dear," said he, pinching one of her plump fingers.

"It will be rather a Darby and Joan marriage, of course," she smiled.

"Will it?" replied Heriot, with a glint out of the corner of his eye
that reminded her forcibly of the late Captain Dunbar.

"Oh, Heriot!" she expostulated. "Remember you're the father of a
grown-up family."

"Well," he replied, with amorous facetiousness, "what man has done, man
can do."

The lady endeavored gently to withdraw her hand, but he held it firmly.

"Will it be a long engagement?" she asked, with a colder smile.

"By Jove, not very!" he whispered riotously.

She felt like one of those intelligent persons who pull the triggers of
supposititiously unloaded guns. By a supreme effort she mastered her
emotion and remarked--

"I wonder what your family will say."

He kissed her demonstratively and cried--

"My