"I met her a year ago in London--Regent Street, to be precise as to locality. A snob spoke to her without an introduction, so she appealed to me, and I punched his head. Then I escorted her home----"
"To Hillshire? What a knight-errant," chuckled Dan. "Don't be an ass. I escorted her to the Guelph Hotel in Jermyn Street, where she and her uncle were staying. The uncle appreciated the service I did for his niece, and made me welcome, especially when he found that, as a newspaper man, I was able to talk in print about his machines. For an inventor the old man had an excellent idea of business."
"Inventors being generally fools. So you called the next day to see if Miss Vincent's nerves were better." Freddy cast a look of surprise at Dan's dark face. "How did you guess that, Halliday? Well, I did, and I got on better with Solomon Vincent than ever."
"Undoubtedly you got on better with the niece," murmured Dan, mischievously. "Well," Laurance colored, "you might put it that way."
"I do put it that way," said Dan firmly, "and from personal experience."
"Not with Mildred. Well, to make a long story short, I saw a great deal of them in town, and took them to dinner and got them theatre seats, and fell deeper in love every day. Then Vincent asked me to Sheepeak to inspect his machines and I wrote several articles in The Moment."
"Ah! I thought I remembered Vincent's name. I read those articles. But you didn't mention the niece."
"Ass!" said the journalist scornfully, "is it likely! Well, that's the whole yarn. I've been several times to Sheepeak and Vincent likes me."
"To the extent of taking you as a nephew?" inquired Dan, thoughtfully. "No, hang him! That's why I call him a beast. He says that Mildred is necessary to his comfort as a housekeeper, and won't allow her to marry me. She is such a good girl that she obeys her uncle because he brought her up when her parents died, and has been a father to her."
"A dull romance and a league-long wooing, with the lady in Hillshire and the swain in London. How long is this unsatisfactory state of things going to last, my son?"