"I guess I'd better go and write my letter," laughed Austin, "before you flatter me into having an awfully swelled head. But I want to tell you first--I'm not a pauper any more. I've got twenty thousand dollars of my own--an old aunt has died and left most of her will in my favor. I've taken capital, and paid off all our debts--except what we owe to Sylvia. She can give me that for a wedding present if she wants to. It's queer how much less sore I am about her money now that I've got a little of my own! There are one or two things that I want to buy for her, and I want to pay my own expenses and Peter's on a trip through western New York farms this summer. The rest I must invest as well as I can, to bring me in a little regular income. I'm sure, now that the farm and the family are perfectly free of debt, that I can earn enough to add quite a little to it every year. If Sylvia lost every cent she had, we could get married just the same, and though she'd have to live simply and quietly, she wouldn't suffer. I thought you would help me with investments--or take me to some other man who would." "I will, indeed--if you don't spend _all_ your time, as Sylvia fully intends you shall, making love to her. This changes the outlook wonderfully--clears the sky for both of you! It's bad for a man to be wholly dependent on his wife, and scarcely less bad for her. But there's another matter--" "Yes, sir?" "I don't want you to think I'm meddling--or underestimating Sylvia--" "I won't think that, no matter what you say." "How long have you and she been in love with each other? Wasn't it pretty nearly a case of 'first sight'?" Austin flushed. "It certainly was with me," he said quietly. "And haven't you--quarrelled from the very beginning, too?" The boy's flush deepened. "Yes," he said, still more quietly, "we seemed to misunderstand--and antagonize each other." "Even to-day?"--Then as Austin did not answer, "Now, tell me truthfully--whose fault is it?" "The first time it was mine," said Austin quickly. "She made me clean up the yard--it needed it, too!--and I was furious! And I was rude--worse than rude--to her for a long time. But since then--"