you happily _married_," he said.

"I--I don't know," she faltered. "I----"

"But _I_ know for you, little girl," he insisted, tapping the open page.
"And under my name here, I want to see written: '_Married:--Kathrien and
Frederik._' You will do as I wish, dear? It would make me so happy!"

"Why, Oom Peter," she faltered in distress, "of course there isn't
anything I wouldn't do--gladly--to make you happy. But----"

"Kitty," urged Frederik, "you know I love you! You know----"

"Yes, yes, yes. Certainly she does," snapped Grimm, fretted at the
interruption. "Everybody knows that."

Grimm caught the girl's look of dumb entreaty, misread it, manlike, and
hurried on:

"Come, girl, we've no time to be coy. Promise me you'll consent, Katje.
We'll make it a June wedding. We have ten days yet. And----"

"Oh, I _couldn't_!" protested the poor girl. "_Really_, I couldn't."

"Nonsense, little girl. It's the easiest thing in the world to get
ready to be happy. Ten days is plenty. And you----"

"We can get your trousseau later," put in Frederik eagerly.

"Fritz!" cried the old man, exasperated. "_Will_ you keep out of this?
Who is managing it? You or I? In ten days, then, Katje? _Please!_"

"Why," she stammered, wretchedly at a loss, "if it will make you so
happy, Oom Peter--if it means so much to you----"

"It does. It _does_!"

"I owe everything to you----"

"Then give me the privilege of seeing you a happy, contented wife, and
we will write 'Paid' across the bill."

"But why need I marry so terribly soon?"

"To gratify a cranky old man's whim, Katje. It means more to me than I
can tell you. Frederik understands."

She looked from one to the other. On each face she read a fatuous
eagerness. She knew the futility of pleading with Frederik. She knew
still more surely the uselessness of trying to make Peter Grimm change
his stubborn wishes. With a little catch in her breath, she gave up the
hopeless, unequal fight.

"Very well," she assented.

"You will do it?" cried Peter Grimm joyfully.

"Yes, I--promise," she answered; and her voice was dead.

"Good!" sighed Grimm, as he picked up his pipe and leaned back again in
the big chair's recesses, a smile of utter peace and contentment
irradiating his square old face. "You've made me very, _very_ happy,
Katje," he murmured, his eyes half-shut, his words trailing away almost
into incoherence. "Very, very happy. I'm happier than ever I was in all
my life--happier