he. "I'm in a beastly mess--I want to
marry her--she's the only girl in the world for me--the only one I've
ever really loved, and I've proposed--that is, I want to propose to
her, but I'm engaged to Edith Curzon on the quiet."

"I reckon you'll marry her, then," I said; "because she strikes me as a
young woman who's not going to lose a million dollars without putting a
tracer after it."

"And that's not the worst of it," Jack went on.

"Not the worst of it! What do you mean! You haven't married her on the
quiet, too, have you?"

"No, but there's Mabel Moore, you know."

I didn't know, but I guessed. "You haven't been such a double-barreled
donkey as to give her an option on yourself, too?"

"No, no; but I've said things to her which she may have misconstrued, if
she's inclined to be literal."

"You bet she is," I answered. "I never saw a nice, fat, blonde girl who
took a million-dollar offer as a practical joke. What is it you've said
to her? 'I love you, darling,' or something about as foxy and
noncommittal."

"Not that--not that at all; but she may have stretched what I said to
mean that."

Well, sir, I just laid into that fellow when I heard that, though I
could see that he didn't think it was refined of me. He'd never made it
any secret that he thought me a pretty coarse old man, and his face
showed me now that I was jarring his delicate works.

"I suppose I have been indiscreet," he said, "but I must say I expected
something different from you, after coming out this way and owning up.
Of course, if you don't care to help me----"

I cut him short there. "I've got to help you. But I want you to tell me
the truth. How have you managed to keep this Curzon girl from announcing
her engagement to you?"

"Well," and there was a scared grin on Jack's face now; "I told her
that you, as trustee under father's will, had certain unpleasant powers
over my money--in fact, that most of it would revert to Sis if I married
against your wishes, and that you disliked her, and that she must work
herself into your good graces before we could think of announcing our
engagement."

I saw right off that he had told Mabel Moore the same thing, and that
was why those two girls had been so blamed polite to me the night
before. So I rounded on him sudden.

"You're engaged to that Miss Moore, too, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Why didn't you come out like a man and say so at first?"

"I couldn't, Mr. Graham. Someways