“I’m afraid I have scarcely deserved all you have offered me, sir,” said Appleby, whose fingers trembled a little as he took up the document. “Nobody could have anticipated this result when I came across you on board the ‘Aurania.’” Harding rose, and opening a cupboard took out a bottle and two glasses, which he filled to the brim. “I’ve no great use for this kind of thing in business hours as a rule, but the occasion warrants it, and I believe only Austrian princes and their ministers drink that wine,” he said. “Well, here’s my partner’s prosperity!” They touched glasses, and a flush crept to Appleby’s forehead, while there was a little kindly gleam in Harding’s eyes. “I’m grateful, sir,” said Appleby, and stopped abruptly. Harding laughed. “Now, don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve no use for speeches, and am going to get my money out of you. This is a business deal, and there’s something else to go into. You have quite fixed to sail in the ‘Cunarder’ on Saturday?” “Yes. Still, I should not be much more than three weeks away.” “Well,” said Harding a trifle dryly, “I don’t quite know. I think Nettie told me there was a warrant out for you, and I believe it’s quite difficult to get round the police in your country.” “I must take my chances. There is a woman in England that Tony Palliser was to have married. He expected me to go.” Harding looked at him curiously. “Oh, yes,” he said. “Nettie told me about her. Well, I guess if you feel that way I have got to let you go, and I don’t quite know I’m sorry you have these notions. They’re a kind of warranty, and it wasn’t altogether because you’ve got in you the snap and grit that makes a man who can handle big affairs I made you my partner. Still, time’s getting on, and Nettie is expecting us at Glenwood.” He summoned two clerks, who attested the agreement, and in another ten minutes they were waiting for the elevator, while late that night Appleby contrived to find Nettie Harding, who had been very gracious to him, alone. She was standing by the marble hearth in the great drawing‐ room where snapping logs of scented wood diffused a warmth and brightness which would, however, scarcely have kept the frost out but for the big furnace in the basement. “What happened to‐day has your approbation?” he said. Nettie smiled. “Now, I think that is quite unnecessary when you know it has,” she said. “Perhaps it is. I can’t help fancying you were not greatly astonished at your father’s decision.” “Still,” said the girl quietly, “I don’t think I could coax Cyrus P. Harding into making a bad bargain. Besides, if I had a finger in it, is it more than any one would have expected?” “I don’t quite understand.” “No?” and Nettie smiled incredulously. “Well, you picked me up one night when I might have gone out over the rail on the ‘Aurania.’” “I don’t think you could have managed it had you tried.”