"You wouldn't marry me," charged Bobby. "If you had this never would have happened." She shook her head and smiled, but she laid her hand upon his arm and drew closer to him. "I'm afraid it would, Bobby. You might have asked my advice, but I expect you wouldn't have taken it." "I guess you're right about that," admitted Bobby; "but if you'd only married me---- Honest, Agnes, when are you going to?" "I shall not commit myself," she replied, smiling up at him rather wistfully. "There's somebody else," declared Bobby, instantly assured by this evasiveness that the unknown had something to do with the matter. "If there were, it would be my affair entirely, wouldn't it?" she wanted to know, still smiling. "No!" he declared emphatically. "It would be my affair. But really I want to know. Will you, if I get my father's business back?" "I'll not promise," she said. "Why, Bobby, the way you put it, you would be binding me _not_ to marry you in case you _didn't_ get it back!" and she laughed at him. "But let's talk business now. I was just starting out upon your affairs, the securing of some bonds for which the lawyer I have employed has been negotiating, so you may take me up there and he will arrange to get you the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars you are to have. It's for a new start, without restrictions except that you are to engage in business with it. That's all the instructions I have." [Illustration: Will you if I get my father's business back?] "Thanks," said Bobby, with a gulp. "Honestly, Agnes, it's a shame. It's a low-down trick the governor played to put me in this helplessly belittled position with you." "Why, how strange," she replied quietly. "I look upon it as a most graceful and agreeable position for myself." "Oh!" he exclaimed blankly, as it occurred to him just how uncomfortable the situation must be to her, and he reproached himself with selfishness in not having thought of this phase of the matter before. "That's a fact," he admitted. "I say, Agnes, I'll say no more about that end of it if you don't; and, after all, I'm glad, too. It gives me a legitimate excuse to see you much oftener." "Gracious, no!" she protested. "You fill up every spare moment that I have now; but so long as you are here on business this time, let's attend to business. You may take me up to see Mr. Chalmers. By the way, I want you to meet him, anyhow. You have seen him, I believe, once or twice. He was here one day when you called, and he was walking with me in the lobby of the theater when you came in to join us one evening." "Y-e-s," drawled Bobby, as if he were placing the man with difficulty.