ed attentive and curious.

"It is a matter of the deepest interest to me--"

Again Rule paused, for Mr. Rockharrt was looking at him with bent brows,
staring eyes, and bristling iron gray hair and beard, or hair and beard
that seemed to bristle.

"Your granddaughter--" began Rule. "Your granddaughter has made me very
happy by consenting to become my wife, with your approbation," calmly
replied Rule.

"Oh!" exclaimed the old man, in a peculiar tone, between surprise and
derision. "And so you have come to ask my consent to your marriage with
my granddaughter?"

"If you please, Mr. Rockharrt."

"And so that is the reason why you worked so hard to get my railroad
bill through the legislature. Well, I always believed that every man had
his price; but I thought you were the exception to the general rule. I
thought you were not for sale. But it seems that I was mistaken, and
that you were for sale, and set a pretty high price upon yourself,
too--the hand of my granddaughter!"

The young man was not ill-tempered or irritable. Perfectly conscious of
his own sound integrity, he was unmoved by this taunt; and he answered
with quiet dignity:

"If you will reflect for a moment, Mr. Rockharrt, you will know that
your charge is untrue and impossible, and you will recall it. I took up
your railroad bill because I saw that its provisions would be beneficial
to the small towns, tradesmen and farmers all along the proposed
line--interests that many railroads neglect, to the ruin of parties most
concerned. And I took up this cause before I had ever met your
granddaughter since her childhood or as a woman."

"That is true. Well, well, the selfish and mercenary character of the
men, and women, too, that I meet in this world has made me, perhaps, too
suspicious of all men's motives," said the champion egotist of the
world, speaking with the air of the great king condescending to an
apology--if his answer could be called an apology.

Rule accepted it as such. He knew it was as near to a concession as the
despot could come. He bowed in silence.

"And so you want my granddaughter, do you?" demanded the old man.

"Yes, sir; as the greatest good that you, or the world, or heaven, could
bestow on me," earnestly replied the suitor.

"Rubbish! Don't talk like an idiot! How do you propose to support her?"

"By the labor of my brain and hands," gravely and confidently replied
Rule.

"Worse rubbish than the other! How much a year does