rst-rate to have Al take up the Z.
Snow and Co. business and the Snow house and land and keep them goin'
till HE dies. Mind, I ain't at all sure that he'll do it, or be capable
of doin' it, but that's what I'd like. Now you're in New York most of
the year, and so's your wife and daughter. New York is all right--I
ain't sayin' a word against it--but New York and South Harniss are
different."

The Fosdick lip twitched. "Somewhat different," he admitted.

"Um-hm. That sounds like a joke, I know; but I don't mean it so, not
now. What I mean is that I know South Harniss and South Harniss folks. I
don't know New York--not so very well, though I've been there plenty of
times--and I don't know New York ways. But I do know South Harniss ways,
and they suit me. Would they suit your daughter--not just for summer,
but as a reg'lar thing right straight along year in and out? I doubt
it, Mr. Fosdick, I doubt it consid'able. Course I don't know your
daughter--"

"I do--and I share your doubts."

"Um-hm. But whether she liked it or not she'd have to come here if she
married my grandson. Either that or he'd have to go to New York. And if
he went to New York, how would he earn his livin'? Get a new bookkeepin'
job and start all over again, or live on poetry?"

Mr. Fosdick opened his mouth as if to speak, seemed to change his mind
and closed it again, without speaking. Captain Zelotes, looking keenly
at him, seemed to guess his thoughts.

"Of course," he said deliberately, but with a firmness which permitted
no misunderstanding of his meaning, "of course you mustn't get it into
your head for one minute that the boy is figgerin' on your daughter's
bein' a rich girl. He hasn't given that a thought. You take my word for
that, Mr. Fosdick. He doesn't know how much money she or you have got
and he doesn't care. He doesn't care a continental darn."

His visitor smiled slightly. "Nevertheless," he began. The captain
interrupted him.

"No, there ain't any nevertheless," he said. "Albert has been with me
enough years now so that I know a little about him. And I know that all
he wants is your daughter. As to how much she's worth in money or how
they're goin' to live after he's got her--I know that he hasn't given it
one thought. I don't imagine she has, either. For one reason," he added,
with a smile, "he is too poor a business man to think of marriage as a
business, bill-payin' contract, and for another,--for another--why, good
Lord, Fos