“No,” rejoined John Steele gravely, “I think it very sensible.”
“I should loathe a house in the suburbs with two servants, or its alternative, the middle-class hotel or superior boarding-house down town. My education and my bringing-up haven’t fitted me for these delights.”
“You incur no danger from a cheap house in the suburbs or its alternative. I am at present earning five thousand dollars a year, and am only on the threshold of my profession. I own absolute cash-producing property to the extent of about three hundred thousand dollars, and if you will consent to our engagement being made public when I am a millionaire, I guarantee that the announcement will take place before two months are past.” Up to this point the girl’s eyes had been fixed on the floor; now she raised them level with his, and he saw that all resentment had fled from them, leaving in its stead a sparkle of mischief and merriment.
“Why,” she laughed, “one would think that the financial conversation upstairs with the uncle was resumed in the morning room with the niece. I suppose these monetary revelations arise because of the business suit you are wearing in this hard morning light; but I think I like you much better, John, in evening clothes, under the radiance of shaded lamps. I am sure neither of us thought of money last night, and I certainly did not this morning until you began talking about it.”
She held her hand out to him, and he took it with enthusiasm.
“I do not wish anything said of our engagement at the present moment,” she went on. “There is nothing very terrible about such a proviso, is there? I have many friends in this city, and I don’t wish them all set gossipping, as will be the case if any announcement is made. We will let the ‘yes’ stand where it did, but you must give me a little time quietly to learn how my uncle may regard the news. You will come here, I hope, just as if nothing had happened, and if I receive you as crossly as I did just now, I give you leave to scold me. Is that a bargain?” she concluded brightly, smiling up at him, and giving him freely what he had taken the night before, her two hands in his.
“It is a bargain,” said John with content, drawing her suddenly toward him and kissing her, an act to which she submitted half with reluctance, half with acquiescence.
And so for a month everything went on as before, except that John was perhaps the most frequent visitor at the Beck household. He thought more of his love than of his money, as it is right and proper a young man should, for youth is the time of optimism, and everything was progressing smoothly.
A week before the general meeting Blair departed for New York, and before he left he appointed Steele acting general manager pro tem., which had the effect of making John the busiest man in the city, giving him little opportunity to think of either femininity or finance. Colonel Beck accompanied Blair to the metropolis, but had returned the day before the annual meeting was held. There were large interests in the West, he said, which would require his unremitting attention during the next few days, and this proved a true prediction.
On the evening of the day of the general meeting Steele left his office late, intending to snatch a hasty meal at the club and return to his work. He found the streets in unusual commotion; newsboys were rushing frantically here and there yelling at the top of their voices: “Great panic in New York.”