Ain't that right?"
"Mr. Dingle," said Mrs. Porter, "I should like to shake you by the
hand. It is amazing to me to find such sound sense in a man. You have
expressed my view exactly. If I have any influence with Mr. Winfield,
he shall marry my niece to-day. You are a man of really exceptional
intelligence, Mr. Dingle."
"Aw, check it with your hat, ma'am!" murmured Steve modestly. "Nix on
the bouquets! I'm only a roughneck. But I fall for Miss Ruth, and there
ain't many like Kirk, so I'd like to see them happy. It would sure get
my goat the worst way to have the old man gum the game for them."
"I cannot understand a word you say," said Mrs. Porter, "but I fancy we
mean the same thing. Here comes Mr. Winfield at last. I will speak to
him at once."
"Spiel away, ma'am," said Steve. "The floor's yours."
Kirk entered the studio.
Chapter VI
Breaking the News
Old John Bannister returned that night. Learning from Bailey's
trembling lips the tremendous events that had been taking place in his
absence, he was first irritated, then coldly amused. His coolness
dampened, while it comforted, Bailey.
A bearer of sensational tidings likes to spread a certain amount of
dismay and terror; but, on the other hand, it was a relief to him to
find that his father appeared to consider trivial a crisis which, to
Bailey, had seemed a disaster without parallel in the annals of
American social life.
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