Page:Gadsby.djvu/98

Rh would—” and Gadsby took pity on him, right off.

Nancy had always had a strong liking for Frank. Both had grown up in Branton Hills from babyhood; and Gadsby thought back about that lassoo which had brought him Lady Gadsby. Now asking a girl’s Dad for that young lady’s hand is no snap for any young ; and Gadsby was just that kind of a Dad who would smooth out any bumps or rough spots in such a young swain’s path. Nancy wasn’t a child, now, but a grown-up young woman; so Gadsby said:—

“Frank, Lady Gadsby and I know all about how much you think of Nancy; and what Nancy thinks of you. So, if you want to marry, our full wish is for a long and happy union. Nancy is out in that arbor, down this back path; and I’ll watch that nobody disturbs you two for an hour.”

At this grand turn of affairs, Frank could only gasp:—“OH-H-H!!” and a shadowy form shot down that dusky path; and from that moonlit arbor, anybody knowing how a man chirps to a canary bird, would know that two young birds put a binding approval upon what His Honor had just said!!

Many a man has known that startling instant in which Dan Cupid, that busy young rascal, took things in hand, and told him that his baby girl was