Harry rose also, but lifted his hand to arrest the financier.  “Pardon me, there is something else; I wouldn’t mention it, but I hear you are going to leave to-morrow and go abroad with—­Miss Armorer.  I am conscious I haven’t introduced myself very favorably, by refusing you a favor when I want to ask the greatest one possible; but I hope, sir, you will not think the less of a man because he is not willing to sacrifice the interests of the people who trust him, to please ANYONE.  I—­I hope you will not object to my asking Miss Armorer to marry me,” concluded Harry, very hot and shaky, and forgetting the beginning of his sentences before he came to the end.

“Does my daughter love you, do I understand, Mr. Lossing?”

“I don’t know, sir.  I wish I did.”

“Well, Mr. Lossing,” said Armorer, wishing that something in the young man’s confusion would not remind him of the awful moment when he asked old Forrester for his Jenny, “I am afraid I can do nothing for you.  If you have too nice a conscience to oblige me, I am afraid it will be too nice to let you get on in the world.  Good-morning.”

“Stop a minute,” said Harry; “if it is only my ability to get
on in the world that is the trouble, I think ------”

“It is your love for my daughter,” said Armorer; “if you don’t love her enough to give up a sentimental notion for her, to win her, I don’t see but you must lose her, I bid you good-morning, sir.”

“Not quite yet, sir”—­Harry jumped before the door; “you give me the alternative of being what I call dishonorable or losing the woman I love!” He pronounced the last word with a little effort and his lips closed sharply as his teeth shut under them.  “Well, I decline the alternative.  I shall try to do my duty and get the wife I want, BOTH.”

“Well, you give me fair warning, don’t you?” said Armorer.

Harry held out his hand, saying, “I am sorry that I detained you.  I didn’t mean to be rude.”  There was something boyish and simple about the action and the tone, and Armorer laughed.  As Harry attended him through the outer office to the door, he complimented the shops.

“Miss Armorer and Mrs. Ellis have promised to give me the pleasure of showing them to them this afternoon,” said Harry; “can’t I show them and part of our city to you, also?  It has changed a good deal since you left it.”

The remark threw Armorer off his balance; for a rejected suitor this young man certainly kept an even mind.  But he had all the helplessness of the average American with regard to his daughter’s amusements.  The humor in the situation took him; and it cannot be denied that he began to have a vivid curiosity about Harry.  In less time than it takes to read it, his mind had swung round the circle of these various points of view, and he had blandly accepted Harry’s invitation.  But he mopped a warm and furrowed brow, outside, and drew a prodigious sigh as he opened the note-book in his hand and crossed out, “See L.” “That young fellow ain’t all conscience,” said he, “not by a long shot.”