“‘Yellow booming––slump in Grey’! Now I wonder what that means? Do you think it’s a disguised love message to some forlorn damsel in the east, or does it conceal the heartrending cry of a lost soul to some fond but angry parent?” Then, as the man 55 did not immediately answer, she went on with a pucker of thought upon her brow. “‘Yellow’––that might mean gold. ‘Booming’––ah, yes, the Kootenai mines, or the Yukon. There is going to be a rush there this year, isn’t there? Oh, I forgot,” with real contrition, “I mustn’t mention the Yukon, must I? That is where your disaster occurred that caused you to be banished to the one-horsed station of Ainsley.”
“Not forgetting the reduction of my salary to the princely sum of two thousand dollars per annum,” Grey added bitterly.
“Never mind, old boy, it brought us together, and dollars aren’t likely to trouble us any. But let me get on with my puzzle. ‘Slump in Grey.’ That’s funny, isn’t it? ‘Slump’ certainly has to do with business. I’ve seen ‘Slump’ in the finance columns of the Toronto Globe. And then ‘Grey.’ That’s your name.”
“I believe so.”
“Um. Guess I can’t make much of it. Seems to me it must be some business message. I call it real disappointing.”
“Perhaps not so disappointing as you think, sweetheart,” Grey said thoughtfully.
“What, do you understand it?” The girl at once became all interest.
“Yes,” slowly, “I understand it, but I don’t know that I ought to tell you.”
“Of course you must. I’m just dying of curiosity. Besides,” she went on coaxingly, “we are going to be married, and it wouldn’t be right to have any secrets from me. Dear old Gurridge never lost an opportunity 56 of firing sage maxims at us when I used to go to her school. I think the one to suit this occasion ran something like this––
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‘Secrets withheld ’twixt man and wife, Infallibly end in connubial strife.’ |