"Oh, my interest is on my mother's side," said the Tyro hastily. "That's why I'm buying the property."
"You're not!" said the girl, with a little stamp of her foot. Her companion moved back apprehensively. "Can you pay a million dollars for it?"
"No. Can you?"
"Never mind. Dad said he'd get it for me if—if—well, he promised to, anyway."
"If you'd marry the marionette who recently faded from view?"
"Ye—yes."
"Far be it from me," said the Tyro modestly, "to enter the lists against so redoubtable a champion on such short notice. Still, if you are marrying real estate, rather than wealth, intellect, or beauty, I may mention that I've got an option on that very house, and that it will cost me pretty much every cent I've made since I left college to pay for it."
"That you've made? Haven't you got any money of your own?"
"Whose do you suppose the money I've made is?"
"But anything to live on, I mean. Do you have to work?"