"They haven't a particle of worldliness, either of them, and I don't believe it will make any great difference if we have millions. Of course if you were, for instance, the president of the South Midland they would not have refused to receive you, but they would have objected quite as strongly to your marrying into the family. What you are yourself might concern them if they were inviting you to dinner, but when it is a question of connecting yourself with their blood, it is what your father was that affects them. I really believe," she finished half angrily, half humorously, "that Aunt Mitty--not Aunt Matoaca--would honestly rather I'd marry a well-born drunkard or libertine than you, whom she calls 'quite an extraordinary-looking young man.'" "Then if they can neither be cajoled nor bought, I see no hope for them," I replied, laughing, as she sprang from my hand into her saddle. The red flame of the maple was in her face as she looked back at me. "Everything will come right, Ben, if we only love enough," she said. CHAPTER XVIII THE PRINCIPLES OF MISS MATOACA When I walked down to the office now, I began to be pointed out as "the General's wonderful boy." Invitations to start companies, or to directorships of innumerable boards, were showered upon me, and adventurous promoters of vain schemes sought desperately to shelter themselves behind my growing credit. Then, in the following October, the consolidated oil interests bought out my business at my own price, and I awoke one glorious morning to the knowledge that my fortune was made. "If you're going to swell, Ben, now's the time," said the General, "and out you go." But my training had been in a hard school, and by the end of the month he had ceased to enquire in the mornings "if my hat still fitted my head." "You'll have your ups and downs, Ben, like the rest of us," he said, "but the main thing is, let your fortunes see-saw as they may, always keep your eyes on a level. By the way, I saw Sally Mickleborough last night, and when I asked her why she fell in love with you, she replied it was because she saw you pushing a wheel up a hill. Now there's a woman with a reason--you'd better look sharp, or she'll begin talking politics presently like her Aunt Matoaca. What do you think I found on my desk this morning? A pamphlet, addressed in her handwriting, about the presidential election." Then his tone softened. "So Sally's going to marry you in spite of her aunts? Well, she's a good girl, a brave girl, and I'm proud of her." When I went home to supper, I was to have a different opinion from Dr. Theophilus. "I saw Sally Mickleborough to-day, Ben, when I called on Miss Matoaca,--[that poor lady gets flightier every day, she left a pamphlet here this morning about the presidential election]--and the girl told me in the few minutes I saw her in the hall, that she meant to marry you next month." "She will do me that great honour, doctor."