The young fellow grinned a little ruefully. “A woman, yes, but not in the usual way. What would you think if I told you—But, pshaw! what’s the use? It would sound to you just like any other out-of-work fairy-tale. Well, it may amuse you. If you really want to know, I’m here, busted and broke, because I refused a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of gilt-edged securities and real estate.”
“A hundred thousand!” Bull’s financial acquaintance having rarely risen above the sixty-a-month class, he could not repress his surprise.
“There, I told you. Nevertheless, it is true. I am here because I refused a hundred thousand—with a girl attached.”
Bull’s face fell. “I see. Folks wanted you to marry her an’ you refused beca’se you’d already picked one for yourself.”
The young man nodded. “Correct except in one or two particulars. I disliked the girl so much that her money couldn’t tempt me. As for the one I’ll marry, I haven’t picked her yet. But I mean to when I’m taken that way.”
Bull’s face lit up with hope again as, with naïve frankness, the young fellow went into details; told how his father had set his heart on a marriage that would unite the wealth of two families. The girl, an only daughter, was desirable; pretty, accomplished, played, sang, and all that! They had been brought up almost like brother and sister, and there was the hitch!
“For a fellow doesn’t want to marry his sister,” he explained. “I know her so well she hasn’t a surprise in her hand. When I hook up, it will be with a girl that can bowl me over at first sight and keep me guessing forever after. But the Relieving Officer”—he broke off, laughing at Bull’s puzzled look—“that’s my name for my father. He was always coming through when I got in debt at college, hence the title. He’s a good old scout, but obstinate as—as—”
“—yourself?” Bull suggested.
“Right-o! Well, you know what happens when the irresistible force hits the immovable obstacle—something busts. That was me. Without even the last check the stern parent presents to the undutiful son in melodrama, I got. Of course the dear old gentleman wouldn’t have me suffer. He supposed I’d presently come home to partake of the fatted calf; and just for fear that I might, I took my last money and bought a ticket West. So here I am, without money and without friends. Add it up and subtract the result—pick and shovel. I see them looming in the future.”
“Oh, shore!” The caliph—that is, Bull—was proceeding very cautiously. “You’ll get a job in some bank.”