"Oh, I don't know as you would put it quite that baldly," he protested. "But you see, when it comes to marrying and settling down and raising a family, you have to look at all sides of the thing. The father, as we all know, is a cold-blooded old werewolf; the mother nobody knows anything about save that--happily, in all probability--she isn't living. And there you are. Yet I won't deny that there are times when I'm tempted to shut my eyes and take the high dive, anyway--at the risk of splashing a lot of good people who would doubtless be properly scandalized." By this time Griswold was gripping the arms of his chair savagely and otherwise trying to hold himself down; but this, too, Raymer could not know. "You have reason to believe that it rests wholly with you, I suppose?" came from the tilting chair after a little pause. "Miss Grierson is only waiting for you to speak?" "That's a horrible question to ask a man, Kenneth--even in the dark. If I say yes to it, it can't sound any other way than boastful and--and caddish. Yet I honestly believe that-- Oh, hang it all! can't you see how impossible you're making it, old man?" "Not impossible; only a trifle difficult," was the qualifying rejoinder. "It is easier from this on. That is the peaceful way out of the shop trouble for you, Raymer. When you can go to Jasper Grierson and tell him you are going to marry his daughter, the trouble will be as good as cured." For a little time Raymer was speechless. Then he burst out. "Well, I'll be-- Jove, Griswold, you don't lack much of being as cold-blooded as the old buccaneer himself! What makes you think he is stirring up the trouble?" "It doesn't require any special thought. He wanted to freeze you out a little while back, and you balked him. Now he has come back at you another way." "I wonder!" said the iron-founder musingly; and then: "I more than half believe you are right. But if you are, do you realize what you are proposing?" "I am not proposing anything; I am merely suggesting. But you needn't put in the factor of doubt. This labor trouble that is threatening to smash you is Jasper Grierson's reply to the move you made when you let me in and choked him off. He is reaching for you." Again Raymer held his peace and the atmosphere of the room grew pungent with tobacco smoke. "I'm feeling a good bit like a yellow dog, Kenneth," he said, at length. "After what I've admitted and what you've said, I'm left in the position of the poor devil who would be damned if he did and be damned if he didn't. You have succeeded in fixing it so that I _can't_ ask Margery Grierson to be my wife, however much I'd like to." "That isn't the point," insisted Griswold half-savagely. "How you may feel about it, or what your people may say, is purely secondary. The thing to be considered is, what will happen to Miss Grierson?" "Oh, the devil! if you put it that way----" "I am putting it precisely that way."