l you a woman of
business, miss,' he cried. 'You see it at a glance. That's so. That's
the right kind of thing to rope in the Europeans. Some originality about
you. You take 'em on their own ground. You've got the draw on them, you
hev. I like your system. You'll jest haul in the dollars!'

'I hope so,' I said, fervently; for I had evolved in my own mind, oh,
such a _lovely_ scheme for Elsie Petheridge's holidays!

He gazed at me once more. 'Ef only I could get hold of a woman of
business like you to soar through life with me,' he murmured.

[Illustration: HIS OPEN ADMIRATION WAS GETTING QUITE EMBARRASSING.]

I grew interested in my shoes. His open admiration was getting quite
embarrassing.

He paused a minute. Then he went on: 'Well, what do you say to it?'

'To what?' I asked, amazed.

'To my proposition--my offer.'

'I-- I don't understand,' I stammered out bewildered. 'The 25 per cent,
you mean?'

'No, the de-votion of a lifetime,' he answered, looking sideways at me.
'Miss Cayley, when a business man advances a proposition, commercial or
otherwise, he advances it because he means it. He asks a prompt reply.
Your time is valuable. So is mine. _Are_ you prepared to consider it?'

'Mr. Hitchcock,' I said, drawing back, 'I think you misunderstand. I
think you do not realise----'

'All right, miss,' he answered, promptly, though with a disappointed
air. 'Ef it kin not be managed, it kin not be managed. I understand your
European ex-clusiveness. I know your prejudices. But this little episode
need not antagonise with the normal course of ordinary business. I
respect you, Miss Cayley. You are a lady _of_ intelligence, _of_
initiative, and _of_ high-toned culture. I will wish you good day for
the present, without further words; and I shall be happy at any time to
receive your orders on the usual commission.'

He backed out and was gone. He was so honestly blunt that I really quite
liked him.

Next day, I bade a tearless farewell to the Blighted Fraus. When I told
those eight phlegmatic souls I was going, they all said 'So!' much as
they had said 'So!' to every previous remark I had been moved to make
to them. 'So' is capital garnishing: but viewed as a staple of
conversation, I find it a trifle vapid, not to say monotonous.

I set out on my wanderings, therefore, to go round the world on my own
account and my own Manitou, which last I grew to love in time with a
love passing the love of Mr. Cyrus Hitchcock