oin' out and tellin' Rockefeller I'd forgot
more about the oil game than he ever knew! Jared looks kinda dazed and
Alex never gives him a chance to get set.

"How about--ah--Miss Evans?" he says; "have you thought about her?"

"See here!" busts out Jared. "We won't discuss Mab--er--Miss Evans."

Alex grins.

"That's fine!" he says. "I'm glad you got some spirit left; they's
hope for you yet! Let's see," he goes on, like they had been no
interruption at all, "how long have you known Miss Evans?"

"Over a year," says Jared. "But I don't see what--"

Alex points a finger at him.

"You love her, don't you?" he barks out.

"Of course I do!" mumbles Jared, like he's answering without knowin' it.

"Then why don't you marry her?"

Jared stares at him like he's in a trance.

"_Marry_ her?" he gasps. "Marry her? Why if I ever asked her _that_,
she wouldn't even let me call on her any more!"

"You're crazy!" remarks Alex pleasantly. "Now listen, son! You been
goin' around with that girl over a year, and if she didn't reciprocate
your feelin' for her, you wouldn't of lasted that long. Jared, old
boy, a year is too long to monopolize a girl without declarin'
yourself! You're spoilin' her chances, and it's dead wrong! They is
plenty of other young men which would give their left eye to take her
to the movies and the like, but they're layin' off because, havin'
always seen her with you, they take it for granted they is no chance.
That's fine right now for both of you; but if anything should arise
that would make you two part, it won't be as easy for her to replace
you. Now you need a incentive, and a strong one, to put you across.
They is no bigger incentive on earth than matrimony. Go to her and
ask--"

"One minute!" butts in Jared. "I never was talked to like this in my
life before, and why I'm permitting you to discuss my personal affairs,
I don't know. As long as I am, I'll go through with it. What you say
may be true, but this girl is different, and--"

"Jared," says Alex, "I don't doubt that she's different, but,
nevertheless, she's a member of the well-known female sex, and I'm
basin' my dope on that! I'll tell you what I'll do with you. You ask
Miss Evans to marry you, and, if she refuses, I'll give you a job
myself for fifty dollars a week; fifteen more than you get now. If she
accepts, you gotta raise yourself by your own efforts to fifty dollars
a week within six months, or go to work fo