“I perceive,” said Armorer, dryly; “very ingenious and feminine scheme.  But who is Cardigan?”

“Shuey Cardigan?  He is the trainer.  He is a fireman in a furniture shop, now; but he used to be the boxing teacher for some Harvard men; and he was a distinguished pugilist, once.  He said to me, modestly, ’I don’t suppose you will have seen my name in the Police Gazette, miss?’ But he really is a very sober, decent man, notwithstanding.”

“Your Aunt Meg always was picking up queer birds!  Pray, who introduced this decent pugilist?”

Esther was getting into the carriage; her face was turned from him, but he could see the pink deepen in her ear and the oval of her cheek.  She answered that it was a friend of theirs, Mr. Lossing.  As if the name had struck them both dumb, neither spoke for a few moments.  Armorer bit a sigh in two.  “Essie,” said he, “I guess it is no use to side-track the subject.  You know why I came here, don’t you?”

“Aunt Meg told me what she wrote to you.”

“I knew she would.  She had compunctions of conscience letting him hang round you, until she told me; and then she had awful gripes because she had told, and had to confess to YOU!”

He continued in a different tone:  “Essie, I have missed your mother a long while, and nobody knows how that kind of missing hurts; but it seems to me I never missed her as I do to-day.  I need her to advise me about you, Essie.  It is like this:  I don’t want to be a stern parent any more than you want to elope on a rope ladder.  We have got to look at this thing together, my dear little girl, and try to—­to trust each other.”

“Don’t you think, papa,” said Esther, smiling rather tremulously, “that we would better wait, before we have all these solemn preparations, until we know surely whether Mr. Lossing wants me?”

“Don’t you know surely?”

“He has never said anything of—­of that—­kind.”

“Oh, he is in love with you fast enough,” growled Armorer; but a smile of intense relief brightened his face.  “Now, you see, my dear, all I know about this young man, except that he wants my daughter—­ which you will admit is not likely to prejudice me in his favor—­ is that he is mayor of this town and has a furniture store ——­”

“A manufactory; it is a very large business!”

“All right, manufactory, then; all the same he is not a brilliant match for my daughter, not such a husband as your sisters have.”  Esther’s lip quivered and her color rose again; but she did not speak.  “Still I will say that I think a fellow who can make his own fortune is better than a man with twice that fortune made for him.  My dear, if Lossing has the right stuff in him and he is a real good fellow, I shan’t make you go into a decline by objecting; but you see it is a big shock to me, and you must let me get used to it, and let me size the young man up in my own way.  There is another thing, Esther; I am going to Europe Thursday, that will give me just a day in Chicago if I go to-morrow, and I wish you would come with me.  Will you mind?”