“But the boss thinks she knows the girl, and has a down on you because you—because you don’t try for her.”
I laughed bitterly, and said, “You needed no explanation for that.”
“That’s what made the boss’s idea reasonable to me,” he explained. “She couldn’t conceive why you should keep silent, and so was ready to pitch into you on the slightest pretense. Women haven’t much use for a man who falls in love and doesn’t say so. But of course I knew that your debt put marriage out of the question.”
I merely nodded my head, for even to him I could not speak of my love for you, it was so sacred to me.
He drew up a chair to the fire, and continued: “There isn’t another man to whom I’d care to say what I’m going to say to you, but you’ve got a heart and a head both, and won’t misunderstand me.” He finished his glass, and set it on the mantel. “Now I don’t have to tell you that the boss is fond of you, and when I told her that I knew of a reason why you couldn’t marry, she forgave you on the spot. What’s more, she first wished to learn what it was; and failing in that, she then wanted to know if it could be remedied, so that you might have a chance to win the girl.”
“She of course knows nothing of my position?”
“No,” he said, “but she knows something of your character, and she’s ordered me that, if it’s possible, I’m to help you get the girl you care for.”
“But my debt!” I exclaimed.
“How much is it now?” he queried.
“One hundred and eighteen thousand.”