"Yes, sir."
"That is well—for a beginning. Now what property have you besides?"
"Why," said Cromwell, "I make about five hundred dollars clear from my ward, Robert Raymond."
"Indeed! that is handsome. Still, he is likely to be taken from you."
"I don't think he will."
"Still, it is not a certainty. It is not equal to property producing this amount of annual income."
"No; sir; but——"
"Hear me out. There is nothing so substantial as property invested well. A good income is a good thing, but if it comes from anything else it is not sure. Now I will tell you what my intentions have been when anyone applied to me for my daughter's hand, though I did not expect the occasion would come too soon. I meant to say, that is, provided the party was otherwise suitable, 'Are you ready to settle five thousand dollars on my daughter on her wedding day, and will you still have an equal sum left?' That is the question I meant to ask, and I will ask it now of you."