f England enlarges, that your estimate
will rise no higher?"

"In plain English," said Obenreizer, "you doubt my word?"

"Do you purpose to take _my_ word for it when I inform you that I have
doubled my income?" asked Vendale. "If my memory does not deceive me,
you stipulated, a minute since, for plain proofs?"

"Well played, Mr. Vendale! You combine the foreign quickness with the
English solidity. Accept my best congratulations. Accept, also, my
written guarantee."

He rose; seated himself at a writing-desk at a side-table, wrote a few
lines, and presented them to Vendale with a low bow. The engagement was
perfectly explicit, and was signed and dated with scrupulous care.

"Are you satisfied with your guarantee?"

"I am satisfied."

"Charmed to hear it, I am sure. We have had our little skirmish--we have
really been wonderfully clever on both sides. For the present our
affairs are settled. I bear no malice. You bear no malice. Come, Mr.
Vendale, a good English shake hands."

Vendale gave his hand, a little bewildered by Obenreizer's sudden
transitions from one humour to another.

"When may I expect to see Miss Obenreizer again?" he asked, as he rose to
go.

"Honour me with a visit to-morrow," said Obenreizer, "and we will settle
it then. Do have a grog before you go! No? Well! well! we will reserve
the grog till you have your three thousand a year, and are ready to be
married. Aha! When will that be?"

"I made an estimate, some months since, of the capacities of my
business," said Vendale. "If that estimate is correct, I shall double my
present income--"

"And be married!" added Obenreizer.

"And be married," repeated Vendale, "within a year from this time. Good-
night."

VENDALE MAKES MISCHIEF

When Vendale entered his office the next morning, the dull commercial
routine at Cripple Corner met him with a new face. Marguerite had an
interest in it now! The whole machinery which Wilding's death had set in
motion, to realise the value of the business--the balancing of ledgers,
the estimating of debts, the taking of stock, and the rest of it--was now
transformed into machinery which indicated the chances for and against a
speedy marriage. After looking over results, as presented by his
accountant, and checking additions and subtractions, as rendered by the
clerks, Vendale turned his attention to the stock-taking department next,
and sent a message to the cellars, desiring to se