!" returned Phil, serious as an owl, nevertheless
pale at the lips. "What chance has an impecunious day-labourer like me
with Miss Pederstone?

"Why don't you try yourself? You're mighty good at arranging things
for your friends."

Jim laughed.

Phil turned his head and glared at him; and Jim laughed more
uproariously.

"What are you yelling your Tom-fool head off for? I don't see anything
funny about the proposition."

"What? You can't see anything funny in it? Gee, Phil!--but you're
dull. Eileen Pederstone hitched to Wayward Langford, booze fighter,
ne'er-do-weel, good-for-nothing, never-worked-and-never-will;
a-penny-a-liner; Aunt Christina and Captain Mayne Plunkett!"

He became sober again.

"Man, Phil!--I'm ashamed of you even suggesting it. I once fell in
love. Don't get anxious; it was a long time ago when I had ambitions
of becoming Lord Chief Justice, or at least a High Court Judge."

"Yes!"

"The lady and I fell out over her father. He asked me one night how
much money I had in the bank. I was eighteen.

"I told him I had twenty pounds.

"'Tuts, tuts!' said the old fellow, who was one of those human
fireworks--all fizzle and flare,--'that isn't enough to keep a cat.'

"'We know it,' I answered, speaking for both of us, 'but we thought we
might manage to run along for a while without the cat.'"

Phil laughed.

"The old chapie got angry, and the girl sacked me because I was
rude to papa and flippant about the most serious thing in the
world--marriage. She couldn't see the joke. Imagine, Phil, being
married to a woman that couldn't see a joke!

"That was the very nearest I ever got. And believe me----!

"Now you, for instance; you're different, you're just made for married
life; you're young, big, handsome, mannerly, sober, sometimes
diligent, ambitious. You don't smoke much, you don't swear--not all
the time--and you can chop wood and brush your own boots. You----"

But Jim got no further. A cushion, well aimed, stopped his flow of
talk.

"All right, all right! We'll say no more. Go and have your bath! You
need it. Give your soul a touch o' soap and water when you are at
it."

CHAPTER XV

Sol's Matrimonial Mix-Up

For the few days following, the robbery and the rounding-up of the
thieves were the talk of the district; but despite this, it was
surprising how little _The Vernock and District Advertiser_ had to say
about it.

Phil openly commented on the peculiarity, but Jim j