It wouldn't do. I'm sure, in her
heart, Connie cares for me. I could make her understand me better if I
had half the chance. But a fellow can't get near her nowadays. Don't you
think you are carrying the family link too far? Now, what I want to ask
of you, as a friend, is this: will you put in a good word for me every
chance you get? I'll square myself with Katherine all right. Of course,
you'll understand, I don't want to actually break with Katherine until
I'm reasonably sure of Constance. I'm a guest of the Rodney family, you
see. It would be downright indecent of me. No, sir! I'm not that sort. I
shouldn't think of ending it all with Katherine so long as we are both
guests of her father. I'd wait until the end of next week."
Brock had listened in utter amazement to the opening portion of this
ingenuous proposal. As the flexile youth progressed, amazement gave
place to indignation and then to disgust. Brock's brow grew dark; the
impulse to pull his countryman's nose was hard to overcome. Never in all
his life had he listened to such a frankly cold-blooded argument as that
put forth by the insufferable Knicker-bocker. In the end the big New
Yorker saw only the laughable side of the little New Yorker's plight.
After all, he was a harmless egoist, from whom no girl could expect much
in the way of recompense. It mattered little who the girl of the moment
might be, she could not hope to or even seek to hold his perambulatory
affections.
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