ffairs, let alone the affairs of a wife, and, presumably later,
of a family. Mr. Strumley was rich at present, so much was readily
conceded; but he was not capable himself of taking care of what a
thrifty parent had laid by for him. He in his weak-mindedness was
compelled to hire the brains of a mere substitute, a manager, if you
prefer. Should anything happen, and such things happen every day, where
would Mr. Strumley be? And where, pray, would be his wife and family? In
the poorhouse!

"My daughter is too good for a man who cannot manage his own concerns,"
the irate father had summed up. "When you have shown yourself capable,
my lad, of competing in the world with grown-up intellects, then there
will be time enough for you to contemplate matrimony--and not until
then. Good morning to you, Mr. Strumley."

"And he snapped his jaws together like a vise," recalled Paul, coming
out from his gloomy retrospection.

"If he shut them so," and Bettina worked her pretty chin out to its
farthest extension, "well, that means he is like the man from Missouri;
you've got to show him before he changes his mind one iota."

"I ought to have been humping over a desk from the start," regretted Mr.
Strumley, feeling his bulging biceps dolefully. "It's all right stroking
a crew, and heaps of fun, too, but it doesn't win you a wife. Now
there's your dad, he couldn't pull a soap box across a bath tub; but he
can pull through a 'deal' I couldn't budge with a hand-spike."

Miss Bettina sighed sympathetically, and smiled appreciatively. She felt
deeply for her lover, and was justly proud of such a capable parent.
"Every one does say papa is an excellent business man," she remarked;
"and he certainly can swing some wonderful deals. Only yesterday I
accidentally overheard him telling Mr. Proctor that he held an option--I
think that was the word--from Haynes, Forster & Company on thousands and
thousands of acres of timber land in Arkansas. He said it would expire
to-day at two o'clock, but that he was going to buy the land for
cash--'spot cash' he said was what they demanded."

Mr. Strumley smiled ruefully. "And I guess it will be some of my 'spot
cash,'" he ruminated. "I am not saying anything against your father,
Bettina, but if it wasn't for such idle good-for-nothings as myself, who
let their money accumulate in his bank, I doubt if he could swing many
of these 'big deals.' If we were like he wanted us to be, we'd be
swinging them oursel