“Dear, dear,” thought the Judge, “how persistent he is! I haven’t given my consent to your engagement as yet,” he answered. “Why do you wish to go to New York?”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Arthur, taken by surprise. “At least, it is a larger field—one may get on in the world more rapidly—and I thought, with my engineering training, as agent of a banking-house I should be sooner able to support a wife.”
“Do you think Gracie would be happier there than in Boston?”
“I don’t know—we had not got to that yet, sir,” said Arthur, cleverly enough. True, they had not; and the Judge smiled a little.
“I mean, in case we should consider this most preposterous scheme?” he added. “Do you mean to be a banker all your life?” he asked, suddenly.
“Oh, no, sir—at least, that is—I should like——”
“Suppose I should ask you to take some practical position on a railroad in the far West?”
“I think I should rather be in New York, sir.—But, of course, I should want to follow your advice.”
“Would you give up the New York plan entirely, if I asked you to?”
“Yes, sir,” said Arthur. “If you gave me Gracie.”