“I guess you’re right about that,” admitted Bobby; “but if you’d only married me—— Honest, Agnes, when are you going to?”
“I shall not commit myself,” she replied, smiling up at him rather wistfully.
“There’s somebody else,” declared Bobby, instantly assured by this evasiveness that the unknown had something to do with the matter.
“If there were, it would be my affair entirely, wouldn’t it?” she wanted to know, still smiling.
“No!” he declared emphatically. “It would be my affair. But really I want to know. Will you, if I get my father’s business back?”
Will you if I get my father’s business back?
“I’ll not promise,” she said. “Why, Bobby, the way you put it, you would be binding me not to marry you in case you didn’t get it back!” and she laughed at him. “But let’s talk business now. I was just starting out upon your affairs, the securing of some bonds for which the lawyer I have employed has been negotiating, so you may take me up there and he will arrange to get you the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars you are to have.
It’s for a new start, without restrictions except that you are to engage in business with it. That’s all the instructions I have.”
“Thanks,” said Bobby, with a gulp. “Honestly, Agnes, it’s a shame. It’s a low-down trick the governor played to put me in this helplessly belittled position with you.”