"I think so, sir, but be that as it may, let us be cool and deliberate now. I have just had a talk with Mr. McElwin and he is still greatly distressed over--over that affair, and he thinks by putting our reasons to work we can get at a settlement. The fact is, he wonders that you would want to stay in such a small and unimportant place as this is, after your editorial that everybody is talking about." "Did he call it an editorial?" Lyman asked, smiling at his visitor. "Well, I don't know as he called it that, but whatever it is, he was a good deal struck by it, and he wondered that you didn't go to some big city and set up there. And I wondered so too, from all that I heard. Somebody, I have forgotten who, hinted that maybe you didn't have money enough and--" "Money," said Lyman; "why, I've got money enough to burn a wet elephant." Sawyer blinked in the glare of this dazzling statement, but he managed to smile and then to proceed: "I spoke to Mr. McElwin about what had been hinted, and inasmuch as you had applied to him for a loan, he didn't know but it was the truth." "A very natural conclusion on his part," said Lyman, leaning back and crossing his feet on a corner of the table. "Yes, he thought so, and I did, too. He ain't so hard a man to get along with as you might think." "He is not a hard man to get away from. It doesn't seem to put him to any trouble to let a man know when he's got enough of him." "I'm afraid you didn't see him under the best conditions." "No, I don't believe I did. He made me feel as if I looked like the man standing at the threshold of the almanac, badly cut up, with crabs and horns and other things put about him." "I think you would find him much more agreeable now." "Oh, he was agreeable enough then, only he didn't agree. And I am thankful that he didn't." "Well, he regrets that he didn't let you have the money, although you came in an unbusiness-like way." "Yes, I did. And pretending to be a lawyer, I ought to have known better. I don't blame him for that." "What do you blame him for, then?" "For wanting his daughter to be your wife." Sawyer jerked his hand as if something had bitten him. "But what right have you to blame him for that? It was arranged long before you ever saw me, and besides what right have you, a stranger, to interfere in his affairs?" "That's very well put, Mr. Sawyer, but there are some affairs that rise above family and appeal to humanity. You requested me to be cool and deliberate, and you will pardon me, I hope, if I am cooler than you expected, and more considerate than you desire. It would be a crime to attempt to merge that young woman's life into yours." "I know you have a pretty low estimate of me, but I won't resent it. We are to be cool." "And considerate," said Lyman, with a slight bow. "Yes, sir; and considerate. But I don't see where the crime would come in. My family is as good as hers."