"I wonder whom I love," said Pen, "for I’m sure I love some one. And they are all so kind and sweet and good. I’m sorry I shall have to hurt so many of them, for the poor dears all adore me." It was marvellous how they had developed in a short time under Pen’s system, which was evidently sound, as Bradstock declared. Plant, under his ten-and-sixpence-a-week scheme, had lost a stone weight, and was as hard and fine as a coil of wire. His search after the people he had ruined gave him a peace of mind to which he had long been a stranger, for American millionaires in business have no peace of mind. "I feel good," said Plant, meaning it both ways, "and my endurance of young Bramber has stiffened my moral fibre." "Whether I marry you or not, Mr. Plant," said Penelope, "I am awfully pleased with you. And how has Lord Bramber behaved?" "He’s been death on what he called my accent," said Plant, a little bitterly, "and it is notorious I’ve none to speak of; and, for that matter, his own you could cut with a knife. However, I think he’s a good boy, and will discover he has brains. I’ve talked to him straight, Lady Penelope. I told him you meant me to. I said he might be a lord and the son of an earl, but that he was a lazy, loafing scallawag, and that, if he’d been my son, I’d have cowhided him. That did him good; it made him sit up, I tell you. Oh, he fairly fizzled and felt like going for me, but he knew better. He has brains, and I’ve talked with members of your legislature who say he’ll do well. Put this down to me, Lady Penelope. Credit me with this. I’ve looked after him like a baby, and I’ve hustled him around in my motor till he can’t help going when he’s out of it. You and me together, my dear young lady, could educate the entire universe. If you’ll only marry me, I’ll start a university on these lines of yours." The idea was a pleasing one, but of course Pen pointed out to him that it was his duty to do it whether she married him or not. "Duty is duty," said Pen. "I’m doing all this out of a sense of duty." "Don’t marry out of a sense of it," retorted Plant. "I just want to be loved. I’m going around feeling I want to be loved. I’ve never been loved properly all my life, and I begin to hanker after it wildly. And, if you do marry me, Lady Penelope, I want you to understand right here and now that I don’t want you to do your duty by me. If you begin to do that, I’ll take a Colt’s forty-five and scatter my brains out. I want love, that’s what I want. I want it straight, without water in it." "I see what you mean," said Penelope. "I think you are a very noble-hearted man, Mr. Plant." And away went poor Plant to draw up a scheme for a university. "I think I could almost love him," said the pensive Penelope. "I could—almost—" Her contemplations were interrupted by Captain Goby. He was a little paler than usual, and perhaps a trifle more intelligent. And he was more in love than ever.