"I didn't say that."
"No; your tone was enough. I admit you know a great deal more about baseball than I do."
He winced. "That was a side-winder, all right. If I knew as much about the carpenter's trade or the sale of dry goods as I do about 'the national game' I'd stand a chance of earning my board."
"Why not join the league?" she suggested. "They pay good wages, I believe."
He took this seriously. "I thought of that, but even if I could get into a league team, which is hardly probable, it wouldn't lead anywhere. You see, I'm getting up an ambition. I want to be rich and powerful."
"Football players have always been my adoration," she responded, heartily. "You'd look splendid in harness. Why don't you go in for that?"
"You may laugh at me now," he replied, bluntly. "But give me ten years—"
"Mercy, I'll be too old to admire even a football captain by that time."
"You'll be only thirty-one."
She sobered a little. "Men have the advantage. You will be young at thirty-three, and I'll be—well, a matron. No, I'm afraid I can't wait that long. I must find my admirable short-stop or half-back, whichever he is to be, long before that."