fic.

As it happened, he was not in the humor for reading on the morning after
the meeting of the female clans, nor were there any clients in the outer
office, and he uttered some of his impressions aloud to the judge who
was sitting restlessly by the window, ostensibly watching Main Street.
Gwynne had wondered at the old gentleman's sudden idleness, but fell
easily into conversation this languid morning that was more like spring
than belated winter.

"I can understand the fascination of San Francisco for anybody," said
the uneasy judge. "I wonder--" with a sudden inspiration, "if it
wouldn't be better for you to go into the law-office of a friend of mine
down there for a while. I mean--" in response to Gwynne's look of
astonishment, "of course I should hate to lose you--quite as much as I
hated to lose my own son, and yours is the only society in which I have
found any positive refreshment for years. But--well! in fact it would
be as well for you to leave Rosewater for a while--until all this talk
has died out."

"What talk?"

The judge felt what courage was left in him oozing under Gwynne's icy
stare.

"Oh Lord! It's just this, Gwynne--just fancy I am really your father.
There are a lot of infernal old hens in this town--where don't they
roost, anyway?--and they have been exercising themselves over your going
out to Isabel's so much, especially at night. They've got the idea into
their empty heads that Isabel has come back from Europe, where she lived
by herself, with all sorts of free-and-easy notions. Perhaps the real
truth is that they distrust any girl as handsome as that who won't
marry. The talk didn't amount to much until yesterday morning--"

"Ah!" Gwynne stood up and took his hat from the little private rack.
"Suppose you ask Mrs. Leslie to tell the hens that I have spent a great
many futile evening hours, the only ones I have at my private disposal,
trying to induce Miss Otis to marry me, and that yesterday evening,
after the fourth or fifth refusal, I borrowed her horse, having walked
out, and rode half-way to San Francisco to steady my nerves. Love and
the law combined are somewhat of a load to carry. I will go out now and
try my luck again. Perhaps this talk will influence her a bit. In fact I
promise that it shall."

XXX

Gwynne found Isabel just stepping out of her launch, after a business
morning in Rosewater, and was hospitably invited to dismount and remain
for luncheon.

"Would