than a million did not affect his love to its
injury. He said frankly to himself that she was none the worse for that,
but it must be asserted to his credit that he thought of her prospective
money very little. He stood ready to take her penniless, on the instant.
Unfortunately, he could not take her on any conditions. Mr. Grampus and
Mrs. Grampus stood like mountains in his way.

Not that Simpson lacked social equality with the Grampus family. He was
a young stockbroker, with expectations as yet unrealized, it is true,
but with a good ancestry and with business popularity. By day he met old
Grampus upon terms of equality. Old Grampus liked him, after a fashion.
He had visited the Grampus house, had dined there often, had met the old
lady with the purring ways, had met, also, the radiant daughter, Sylvia,
and had fallen in love with the latter, deeply and irrevocably. He had
made love cleverly and earnestly, as a fine man should, and had
succeeded wonderfully.

Sylvia was as deeply in love with him as he was with her. They had
solemnly and in all honesty entered into an agreement that they would
remain true, each to the other, no matter what might come. Then he had
approached the father, manfully explained the situation, and had
encountered a reception which was a sight to see and an amazing thing to
hear. The old man was striking when at his worst, and Simpson almost
admired him for his command of explosive expletives. One likes to see
almost anything done well. Simpson was ordered never to enter the house
again. He contained himself pretty well; he made no promises, but he met
that young woman almost every evening. Meanwhile, the young man and the
old man met daily in a business way.

As a rule, the relations between a lover who has been figuratively
kicked out of a house and the man who has figuratively kicked him out
are somewhat strained. Still, young Simpson and old Grampus met down
town in a business way, and it is only putting it fairly concerning
Simpson to say that he showed a forgiving spirit--almost an impudently
forgiving spirit, one might say. Light-hearted and careless as he seemed
to be among his business associates, Simpson possessed a resolute
character, and when he decided upon a course, adhered to it
determinedly. He was not going to be desperate; he was not going
overseas to "wed some savage woman, who should rear his dusky race"; but
he was going to eventually have Miss Grampus, or know the reas