"She didn't give me no chance to back out. Not much! As soon as we come from behind them palms she told, and then come the hand-shakin'. The ladies shook my hand, too; but cold--very cold! And soon they all wanted to go home. Understand, don't you? And everybody's been shakin' hands this mornin'. They think I'm happy. And I've got to pretend to be. But, oh Lord!" He glared despairingly, wrathfully, at the corner wherein had been enacted the tragedy of his wooing, then looked back at David. "There's the whole story. Now I want you to help me." "Help you?" queried David. "What do?" "What do!" roared the Mayor, sarcastically. "D'you think I'm chasin' down a best man!" "If I can help you that way----" "Oh, hell! See here--I want you to help me out o' this damned hole I'm in. You ought to know how to get me out." "Oh, that's it." David thought for a moment, on his face the required seriousness. "There are only three ways. Disappear or commit suicide----" "Forget it!" "Break it off yourself----" "And get kicked out o' this part o' town!" "Or have her break it off." "Now you're comin' to the point, friend. She must break it off, o' course. But how'll I get her to?" "Isn't there something bad in your past you can tell her--so bad that she'll drop you?" "Oh, I've tried that already. As soon as I got outside the hall last night and struck cool air, I come to. I began to tell her what a devil of a fellow I'd been--part truth, most lies. Oh, I laid it on thick enough!" "And what did she say?" "Say? D'you suppose she'd take her hooks out o' me? Not much! Say? She said she was goin' to reform me!" They looked steadily at each other for a long time; then David asked: "You really want my advice?--my serious advice?" "What d'you suppose I brought you here for? Sure I do." "Here it is then: Marry her." David expected an outburst from the Mayor, but the Mayor's head fell hopelessly forward into his hands and he said not a word. David took advantage of the quiet to speak as eloquently as he could of the advantages of marrying in the Mayor's case. At length the Mayor looked up. Hopelessness was still in his face, but it was the hopelessness of resignation, not the hopelessness of revolt. "Well, if it had to be one o' them, I'd just as soon it was her," he said, with a deep sigh. CHAPTER X A BAD PENNY TURNS UP David found a keen pleasure in the business on which he was now engaged. For four years he had talked to no one, and for a year he had talked to but four or five. Now he was actively thrown among men of the world--Jordon, the general agent of the New Jersey Home Company, his assistants, and the attorneys of the company. He instinctively measured himself beside them, and he exulted, for though they were the shrewder in business, he felt himself bigger, broader, than they.