"What is it. Peter?" asked Cobb. "Shall I tell, Monroe?" said Peter. "Dogged if I care," said the unimpressionable Monroe. "He's after Jarney's daughter and her money," said Peter, rubbing his hands on his legs, and pulling hard on a freshly lighted cigar. "Ho, that's why young Winthrope was sent to the New York office, was it?" said Cobb, carelessly. "Yes; it looked too serious seeing him going to her home every day," replied Monroe. "While I also went, sometimes, I never got a squint at her." Cobb became serious at this piece of intelligence. He thought of young Jasper Cobb, his son, as being entitled to a share of the spoils that might be obtained by an alliance with the Jarneys. He thought all plans had been laid for this catch, and all that were needed was to draw in the net and sort the fishes. He thought that, as a matter of course, there could be no failure. He never thought that his son was unfit for a young lady of the graces of Miss Jarney. He never thought children had a right to be heard in making their choice of a life partner. He never thought that Jarney should be consulted. Men of Cobb's stripe never think of the ethical side of a question. They never think of anything but money--how to get it, and how to spend it. They never think of anything, aside from getting money, but of the voluptuous side of life. And this astounding statement of Peter's, relative to Monroe's plotting, came as a cross-complaint to him. Baseless wretch is Mr. Monroe! "What're your prospects, Monroe?" asked Cobb, leaning his head far back in his chair, and blowing smoke upwards, indolently meditating over something that did not go down very well. "Good," said Monroe. "Explain?" said Cobb. "Oh; why, that's a private matter, Mr. Cobb," said Monroe, looking more uncommunicable than ever. "I must know," insisted Cobb, fidgeting in his chair, with a fine interrogative smile of assertive power. "Tell him, Monroe; tell him," said Peter, rubbing his hands, and blowing smoke like a whale spouting water. "There's nothing tangible yet," said the yielding Monroe. "Tell it, Monroe!" commanded Peter. "What is it?" asked Cobb, sarcastically.