Fanny held her head on one side and made a warning gesture. “Oh, I’m serious about this. You must answer my questions if you want to please me. If you don’t, I’ll say ‘No’ outright, and I’ll get Uncle Doug to discharge you. So you’d better look out, or you’ll lose your job.” In spite of himself, Guy smiled. “All right,” he said, to humor her. “Fire away!” Fanny cleared her throat again and threw back her shoulders. “Well, sir, what can I do for you?” Guy tried to mimic her assumed voice. “You can give me your child, sir.” Fanny glared at him. “Now you know very well you wouldn’t talk like that!” she said with disgust in her tone. She shook her head and drew her lips tightly together. “I guess you don’t know dad. M’m.” “Well, what would I say?” “Something foolish, I suppose,” Fanny replied, carelessly. “But this is what you ought to say,” she went on, with elaborate politeness, and assuming a romantic attitude. “Sir, I love your beautiful daughter, Miss Fanny, and I ask your permission to make her my wife.” Guy groaned, bending forward till his fingers nearly touched the floor. “But it takes an awfully fascinating man to talk like that. Now let’s go on.” Fanny burlesqued her father’s manner again. “So you want to marry Fanny, do you? Well, since she’s been out of school, you’re about the tenth man who has asked----” “What? Do you mean to say that all last Summer, while I was slaving down in Washington----?” “This time my father would tell you to leave the house,” said Fanny, haughtily, with a wave of her hand. “Now, look here, I don’t like this game,” Guy declared. “But I like it. Therefore it goes. Now don’t be a silly boy. You might as well get used to dad’s ways first as last. Ahem! As I said, you are the--er--the eleventh. Now, what claim have you on my daughter?” Guy seized the chance. “She’s head and ears in love with me,” he cried, before she had time to stop him. “She can’t live without me.” Fanny seized a book and held it in the air. “Do you know what dad would do if you said that? He’d pack me home to Ashburnham, and I’d have to stay there all Winter.” “I had to tell the truth, didn’t I?” Guy asked, meekly. “Well, dad wouldn’t believe you, anyway,” Fanny replied. Her voice deepened again. “Young man, since you are thinking of getting married, I presume you are in a position to support a wife. What is your income?” Guy looked serious. “I guess I won’t play any more. This is becoming too personal.” Fanny held her hand at her ear. “I didn’t quite catch what you said. _Five_ thousand?” “_One_ thousand, since you’re determined to know, inquisitive; one thousand and keep,” Guy replied, snappishly. “I don’t even have to pay my laundry bills. That’s just twenty dollars a week spending money.” The light faded from Fanny’s eyes. “And you’ve been sending me all those flowers on that?” “Well, flowers don’t cost so much in Summer. I intended to stop when the cold weather came.”