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256 and unbalanced nature, as shown by his always doubling spades at Bridge."

"I can hear your doing it," she said with a faint laugh. "Those are just the reasons you would find. What did they say?"

"They refused to be rejected; and both of them informed me, after my five years at the bar, too, that as soon as you were of age, you could marry whom you liked. I must say that either of them seemed fairly satisfied with his chance; but there must be too much hope somewhere, for you can't marry both of them."

"I'm not going to marry either of them!" she cried hotly. "And—and I think it's awful cheek!"

"Well, I think that is a wise decision, for if you have the chance, as you will have if we can scoop up the Quorley Granite Company, and set it going again, you ought to marry well, a well-to-do peer, or even a millionaire, if you can find one honest enough. But as for cheek, I don't see it. If you do up your hair, acquire a marriageable air, and take the hearts of men with beauty, what can you expect?" She frowned, and said reproachfully, "I wish you wouldn't say things like that." "Why shouldn't I?"

"You know you don't mean them."

"Oh, don't I though?" I said stubbornly; for