"If I'm not, my whole manhood is at fault," he replied earnestly. "Please tell me, haven't I decided on the right, honorable course--on what would seem honorable to Captain Bodine and to Ella also?" "Yes, if you _will_ act now you can take no other." "Well, won't you please approve of it?" "Mr. Houghton, I'm not going to be timid and pusillanimous either. Since you are of age, and will take a perfectly honorable course, I will stand by you as a friend. I will still counsel you, if you so wish, for I fear that your troubles have only begun." "I thank you from my heart," he said, seizing her hand and pressing it warmly. "I do need and wish your counsel, for I have very little tact. I can sail a boat better than I can manage an affair like this." "Will you make me one solemn promise?" "Yes, if I can." "Then pledge me your word that you will not lose your temper with either Captain Bodine or your father." "Oh, I think I can easily do that," he said good-humoredly. "You don't know, you can't imagine, how you may be tried." "Well, it's a sensible thing you ask, and I've sense enough to know it. I pledge you my word. If I break it, it will be because I'm pushed beyond mortal endurance." "Mr. Houghton," she said, almost sternly, "you must not break it, no matter what is said or what happens. You would jeopardize everything if you did. You might lose Ella's respect." He drew a long breath. "You make me feel as if I were going into a very doubtful battle," he said thoughtfully. "It is a very doubtful battle. It certainly will be a hard, and probably a long one, and you will lose it if you don't keep cool." "I can be very firm, I suppose." "Yes, as firm and decided as you please, as long as you are quiet and gentlemanly in your words. Let me say one thing more," she added, very gravely. "If you enter on this affair, and then, in any kind of weakness or fickleness, give it up, I shall despise you, and so will all in this city who know about it. Count the cost. I'm too true a Southerner to look at you again if you trifle with a Southern girl. Your father will offer you great inducements to abandon this folly, as he will term it." He flushed deeply, but only said, in quiet emphasis, "If I ever give up, except for reasons satisfactory to you, I shall despise myself far more than you can despise me." "And you give me your word that you will keep your temper to the very end?" "Yes, Heaven helping me, I will." "Heaven speed you then, my friend." CHAPTER XXIX CONSTERNATION Young Houghton was like a high-mettled steed, from which the curb had been removed. His temperament, even more than the impatience of youth, led him to chafe at delay, and Ella appeared so lovely, so exactly to his mind, that he had a nervous dread lest others should equally appreciate her, and forestall his effort to secure her affection. He resolved, therefore, that not an hour should be lost, and so went directly back to his father's counting-rooms.