f
a wife, but of a business partner of the opposite sex. What you really
want is a business partner with something like a fifth interest, and
whose name shall not appear in the agreement."

Mr. Crewe laughed again. Nevertheless, he was a little puzzled over this
remark.

"I am not sentimental," he began.

"You certainly are not," she said.

"You have a way," he replied, with a shade of reproof in his voice,
"you have a way at times of treating serious things with a little less
gravity than they deserve. I am still a young man, but I have seen a
good deal of life, and I know myself pretty well. It is necessary to
treat matrimony from a practical as well as a sentimental point of view.
There wouldn't be half the unhappiness and divorces if people took time
to do this, instead of rushing off and getting married immediately. And
of course it is especially important for a man in my position to study
every aspect of the problem before he takes a step."

By this time a deep and absorbing interest in a new aspect of Mr.
Crewe's character had taken possession of Victoria.

"And you believe that, by taking thought, you can get the kind of a wife
you want?" she asked.

"Certainly," he replied; "does that strike you as strange?"

"A little," said Victoria. "Suppose," she added gently, "suppose that
the kind of wife you'd want wouldn't want you?"

Mr. Crewe laughed again.

"That is a contingency which a strong man does not take into
consideration," he answered. "Strong men get what they want. But upon
my word, Victoria, you have a delicious way of putting things. In your
presence I quite forget the problems and perplexities which beset me.
That," he said, with delicate meaning, "that is another quality I should
desire in a woman."

"It is one, fortunately, that isn't marketable," she said, "and it's the
only quality you've mentioned that's worth anything."

"A woman's valuation," said Mr. Crewe.

"If it made you forget your own affairs, it would be priceless."

"Look here, Victoria," cried Mr. Crewe, uncrossing his knees, "joking's
all very well, but I haven't time for it to-day. And I'm in a serious
mood. I've told you what I want, and now that I've got to go in a few
minutes, I'll come to the point. I don't suppose a man could pay a woman
a higher compliment than to say that his proposal was the result of some
years of thought and study."

Here Victoria laughed outright, but grew serious again at once.

"Unles