"Have a seat," said Mr. Jarney, in his familiar way of greeting Monroe; "dinner will be ready soon." "Thank you," said Monroe, as he stiffly bent himself into the capacious depths of an arm chair, sitting near. Monroe was faultlessly groomed. He wore an evening suit, and had a diamond in a shirt front that looked no more starched than his frosted face. "My daughter will be down tonight for the first time to take dinner with the family," said Mr. Jarney, in a conversational mood. "She is improving rapidly, Mr. Monroe; rapidly; and you don't know, being a bachelor, how much I am relieved of worry since she began to mend." "I imagine how one would feel," said the feeling Monroe, now inwardly cogitating over how to approach the subject that brought him there on this occasion. Having no hint of Mr. Monroe's intentions, Mr. Jarney proceeded: "Yes; she has improved so rapidly lately that I feel, myself, like coming out of a long illness. My daughter and I are planning a trip, Monroe, just as soon as she is quite able." "A trip!" said Monroe, without expressing his surprise in his visage. "We had thought of going to Europe," pursued Mr. Jarney; "but my business affairs are such that I cannot leave here this summer." "Where then?" asked Monroe, as if it were any of his affair where they went. "We may go to the mountains for a few months, so that she can recuperate, and later in the summer we may go to Europe," answered Mr. Jarney. "Mr. Jarney," said the ghost, in a muffled voice, as if he would burst with his secret, and as if his tongue were tied, "Mr. Jarney, what--what--do you--think of me--as a suitor for your--daughter's--hand?" And then he looked as if he were made of translucent glass, or polished marble, or anything that was hard and white and had a polished surface, with sterile spots on top of it. This was a stunner to the placid Mr. Jarney. The irrepressible Monroe looked stony enough that he might be taken for a real stone god of the Stares, as Mr. Jarney pierced him through with his piercingly keen eyes. "You don't mean it, Monroe?" he finally said, after looking at him a long time, with a smile of the ridiculous mould. "I am in earnest, Mr. Jarney--never more in earnest," responded Monroe. "Have you asked the young lady yet?" asked Mr. Jarney, still unable to believe the man was in earnest. "Not yet; but I want your opinion first, Mr. Jarney," answered Monroe, fingering his watch fob. "You are very amusing, Mr. Monroe; very amusing," said Mr. Jarney, facetiously. "Then you don't look upon me with favor?" asked Monroe. "Mr. Monroe, I am afraid you lack experience--at least in this respect," said Mr. Jarney. "I have money--I have ancestry," said the imperturbable Monroe.