mit to be laughed
at, Mr. Chelm. This is a serious business matter."

"Oh, most certainly! Thoroughly business-like in every sense! My dear
young lady, if you expect me to preserve my legal gravity you must not
be so humorous; it is beyond the self-control of even a fusty
conveyancer. And what part in this financial idyl am I expected to
play!"

"You are to arrange it all. I am to furnish the money, and remain
strictly incognito. That is the first and essential condition I impose."

"What! Mr. Prime is not to know the name of his benefactress?"

"On no account whatever!"

"He will be sure to search the earth until he finds her."

"Not if he be made to believe she is ancient and homely. Besides, how is
he to know it is a woman?"

"Forgive me, Miss Harlan, but no one except a woman could invent such a
project. It fairly takes my breath away. How much of your capital do you
propose to embark in the enterprise,--the whole four millions?"

"No, Mr. Chelm, I am not utterly irrational yet. That is one of the
points I mean to leave to your discretion. I merely insist that he shall
not be scrimped. I do not think, however, that I care to advance over
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? And still you talk of
discretion!"

"Is not that enough?"

"Enough! Why, certainly not. If you are bent upon the plan, at least put
it through handsomely, Miss Harlan. Let him have a cool million at once,
and be done with it."

"I know, of course, that this must seem very quixotic to you as a
business man, Mr. Chelm," I continued after a moment's reflection. "Very
likely you think I am merely jesting. But I am not. I am perfectly
serious. I want to help Mr. Prime. I was very much interested by what
he said, and I believe he is in earnest. The plan that I have just
suggested seems to me entirely feasible. Even supposing that I lose a
couple of hundred thousand dollars, what then? It is a year's income at
the worst; whereas, on the other hand, if the scheme prospers, and he
turns out to be"--

"A merchant prince," interrupted Mr. Chelm. "Yes, a merchant prince, as
I believe he will,"--

"You will be married, and be happy ever after, as in other fairy
stories."

"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chelm. My conclusion of the affair is much
less sentimental. In case events result as I hope and predict, I shall
be thankful that I have given him a chance to put his theories into
practice. You may