He laughed again.
"Ormsby says I ought to buy it, and marry and settle down."
She took him seriously.
"You don't need it. Miss Van Brock has a very lovely home of her own," she said soberly.
It was at his tongue's end to tell the woman he loved how the woman he did not love had refused him, but he saved himself on the brink and said:
"Why Miss Van Brock?"
"Because she is vindictive, too, and——"
"But I am not vindictive."
"Yes, you are. Do you know anything about Judge MacFarlane's family affairs?"
"A little. He has three daughters; one of them rather unhappily married, I believe."