At last Eddie approached him. He came with the swift impetuosity of a man who has decided and is afraid to risk a reaction. "Hello, General," was his crisp greeting as he dropped into the chair which the astute old gentleman had placed, with premeditation, close to his own some time before. He went straight to the point. "I've been thinking over what you said the other day about Martha. Well, I'll marry her." "You!" exclaimed the General, simulating incredulity. "You!" "Yes. I'll be IT. How much does she really weigh?" "Are--are you in earnest, my boy?" cried the other. "Why, she'll be tickled to death!" "May I have her?" "God bless you,--YES!" "I suppose I ought to go up and see her and--and tell her I love her," said Eddie lugubriously. "Or," with a fine inspiration, "perhaps you wouldn't mind telling her for me. I--" "Tell her yourself, you young rascal," cried the General in fine good humour, poking his prospective stepson-in-law in the ribs. Eddie winced. "You can do that to me now, but if you jab me in the ribs after I'm married I'll jab you in the eye." "Good! I like your spirit. Gad, I love a fighting-man! And now, my boy, it seems to me there's no sense in delaying matters. You have my consent. As a matter of form you ought to get Martha's. She'll take you, of course, but I--I suppose she would like the idea of being proposed to. They all do. I daresay you two can settle the point in a jiffy in some quiet nook up at the--But, there! I shall not offer suggestions to you in an affair of the heart, my son. Will you be up to see her this evening?" Eddie drew a long breath. "If--if she has no other engagement." "Engagement?" gasped the General, with popping eyes. "She hasn't sat up after eight o'clock in four years, except on Christmas Eve. You won't be disturbed; so come around." "Perhaps, to be sure of finding her up, I'd better come to dinner." "By all means. Stay as late as you like, too. She won't get sleepy to-night. Not a bit of it." He arose to depart. "Just a moment, General," said Eddie curtly. "We've got a few preliminaries to arrange before I commit myself. Here is a paper for you to sign. Business is business, you know, and this is the first really business-like thing I've ever done. Be good enough to read this paper very carefully before signing." General Gamble put on his glasses and read the brief, but ample contract which bound him to pay to Edward Peabody Ten Eyck, on the day that he was married to Martha Gamble, for better or for worse, an amount equivalent to the value of her weight in pure gold. He hesitated for one brief, dubious moment, then called for pen, ink, and paper. When these articles were brought to him, he deliberately drew up a second contract by which Edward Ten Eyck bound himself to wed Martha Gamble (and no other) on a day to be named by mutual consent at a later date--but not very much later, he was privately resolved.