Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,-a fluffy,feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his ownsilly self.

If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of sucha father-in-law.

I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to theChestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear hisviews upon bimetallism, a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad moneydriving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standardsof exchange."Suppose," he cried with feeble violence, "that all the debts in the world were called upsimultaneously, and immediate payment insisted upon,-what under our present conditionswould happen then?"I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from hischair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss anyreasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonicmeeting.At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of Fate had come!

All that evening I hadfelt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope; hope of victoryand fear of repulse alternating in his mind.