-eight years old and well past the time
when the young man's fancy lightly turns--and all that. I can't ignore
the--the--well, the proprieties, you might say, though that isn't
exactly the word."

"You mean that Margery Grierson doesn't measure up to the requirements
of the Wahaskan Four Hundred?" There was satirical scorn in the
observation, but Raymer did not perceive it.

"Oh, I don't know as you would put it quite that baldly," he protested.
"But you see, when it comes to marrying and settling down and raising a
family, you have to look at all sides of the thing. The father, as we
all know, is a cold-blooded old werewolf; the mother nobody knows
anything about save that--happily, in all probability--she isn't living.
And there you are. Yet I won't deny that there are times when I'm
tempted to shut my eyes and take the high dive, anyway--at the risk of
splashing a lot of good people who would doubtless be properly
scandalized."

By this time Griswold was gripping the arms of his chair savagely and
otherwise trying to hold himself down; but this, too, Raymer could not
know.

"You have reason to believe that it rests wholly with you, I suppose?"
came from the tilting chair after a little pause. "Miss Grierson is only
waiting for you to speak?"

"That's a horrible question to ask a man, Kenneth--even in the dark. If
I say yes to it, it can't sound any other way than boastful and--and
caddish. Yet I honestly believe that-- Oh, hang it all! can't you see
how impossible you're making it, old man?"

"Not impossible; only a trifle difficult," was the qualifying rejoinder.
"It is easier from this on. That is the peaceful way out of the shop
trouble for you, Raymer. When you can go to Jasper Grierson and tell him
you are going to marry his daughter, the trouble will be as good as
cured."

For a little time Raymer was speechless. Then he burst out.

"Well, I'll be-- Jove, Griswold, you don't lack much of being as
cold-blooded as the old buccaneer himself! What makes you think he is
stirring up the trouble?"

"It doesn't require any special thought. He wanted to freeze you out a
little while back, and you balked him. Now he has come back at you
another way."

"I wonder!" said the iron-founder musingly; and then: "I more than half
believe you are right. But if you are, do you realize what you are
proposing?"

"I am not proposing anything; I am merely suggesting. But you needn't
put in the factor of doubt. This lab