And yet—­and yet—­She, too, had found the Agony Column entertaining and—­quite nice.  There was a twinkle in her eyes that bespoke a fondness for romance.  She was human, fun-loving—­and, above all, the joy of youth was in her heart.

Nonsense!  West went inside and walked the floor.  The idea was preposterous.  Still—­he smiled—­it was filled with amusing possibilities.  Too bad he must put it forever away and settle down to this stupid work!

Forever away?  Well—­

On the next morning, which was Saturday, West did not breakfast at the Carlton.  The girl, however, did.  As she and her father sat down the old man said:  “I see you’ve got your Daily Mail.”

“Of course!” she answered.  “I couldn’t do without it.  Grapefruit —­yes.”

She began to read.  Presently her cheeks flushed and she put the paper down.

“What is it?” asked the Texas statesman.

“To-day,” she answered sternly, “you do the British Museum.  You’ve put it off long enough.”

The old man sighed.  Fortunately he did not ask to see the Mail.  If he had, a quarter way down the column of personal notices he would have been enraged—­or perhaps only puzzled—­to read: 

Carlton restaurant:  Nine A.M.  Friday morning.  Will the young woman who preferred grapefruit to strawberries permit the young man who had two plates of the latter to say he will not rest until he discovers some mutual friend, that they may meet and laugh over this column together?

Lucky for the young man who liked strawberries that his nerve had failed him and he was not present at the Carlton that morning!  He would have been quite overcome to see the stern uncompromising look on the beautiful face of a lady at her grapefruit.  So overcome, in fact, that he would probably have left the room at once, and thus not seen the mischievous smile that came in time to the lady’s face —­not seen that she soon picked up the paper again and read, with that smile, to the end of the column.

CHAPTER II

The next day was Sunday; hence it brought no Mail.  Slowly it dragged along.  At a ridiculously early hour Monday morning Geoffrey West was on the street, seeking his favorite newspaper.  He found it, found the Agony Column—­and nothing else.  Tuesday morning again he rose early, still hopeful.  Then and there hope died.  The lady at the Carlton deigned no reply.

Well, he had lost, he told himself.  He had staked all on this one bold throw; no use.  Probably if she thought of him at all it was to label him a cheap joker, a mountebank of the halfpenny press.  Richly he deserved her scorn.

On Wednesday he slept late.  He was in no haste to look into the Daily Mail; his disappointments of the previous days had been too keen.  At last, while he was shaving, he summoned Walters, the caretaker of the building, and sent him out to procure a certain morning paper.