over two hundred, does he?"

"About ten or eleven pounds."

"Even though I am a lawyer, and old and decrepit, I can still handle
that much."

With Dorothy anxiously watching the proceeding and trying to help,
Vaneman picked Seaton up out of the chair, with some effort, and carried
him across the room. The sleeping man muttered as if in protest at being
disturbed, but made no other sign of consciousness. The lawyer then
calmly removed Seaton's shoes and collar, while the girl arranged
pillows under his head and tucked the blanket around him. Vaneman bent a
quizzical glance upon his daughter, under which a flaming blush spread
from her throat to her hair.

"Well," she said, defiantly, "I'm going to, anyway."

"My dear, of course you are. If you didn't, I would disown you."

As her father turned away, Dorothy knelt beside her lover and pressed
her lips tightly to his.

"Good night, sweetheart," she murmured.

"'Night," he muttered in his sleep, as his lips responded faintly to her
caress.

Vaneman waited for his daughter, and when she appeared, the blush again
suffusing her face, he put his arm around her.

"Dorothy," he said at the door of her room, using her full name, a very
unusual thing for him, "the father of such a girl as you are hates to
lose her, but I advise you to stick to that boy. Believe in him and
trust him, no matter what happens. He is a real man."

"I know it, Dad ... thank you. I had a touch of the blues today, but I
never will again. I think more of his little finger than I do of all the
other men I ever knew, put together. But how do you know him so well? I
know him, of course, but that's different."

"I have various ways of getting information. I know Dick Seaton better
than you do--better than he knows himself. I have known all about every
man who ever looked at you twice. I have been afraid once or twice that
I would have to take a hand, but you saw them right, just as you see
Seaton right. For some time I have been afraid of the thought of your
marrying, the young men in your social set are such a hopeless lot, but
I am not any more. When I hand my little girl over to her husband next
October I can be really happy with you, instead of anxious for you.
That's how well I know Richard Seaton.... Well, good night, daughter
mine."

"Good night, Daddy dear," she replied, throwing her arms around his
neck. "I have the finest Dad a girl ever had, and the finest ... boy.
Good night."