“Victor Burnham is a dangerous man. He has been annoying me for some time, although I never let dad know. If I had, there would have been a dreadful scene. I’m sure, because dad never can control his temper. Now he is getting worse. He came to me this morning, as soon as I was downstairs, telling me he had something important to say.”
“Yes?”
“I could only tell him to say it, for I have never told him he must not speak to me—although I should like to do so.”
“But if he annoys you——” began Stanley.
“I am afraid you don’t understand. Dad thinks he is a good business man—and I suppose he is. Besides, dad says he is not a bad fellow at heart. That’s the way he expresses it. Only he is a little gruff. Dad says some of the finest men alive are like that.”
Stanley nodded, without speaking. He had seen enough of the good-natured, easy-going Lawrence Ranfelt to understand that the mine owner would make excuses for anybody, so long as a fair outside was presented.
“Victor Burnham has asked my father if he may ask me to marry him. He says dad told him to go ahead. If I don’t believe what he says. I can ask my father. That’s what Mr. Burnham told me to-day.”
“The cad!”
“He also said this morning that he had been told that I would make a hero of the man who won this motor race.”
“That was true, wasn’t it?” queried Stanley, with a smile. “Your father told us that last night. But I understood you had said it only in a playful way, so that no decent man would take it otherwise.”