The Alaska citizen., 1910-10-10

of his life, for her warm lips met his quite willingly, and with a frank pressure almost equal to his own She sprans back from him al once with sparkling eyes. but he had no mind to follow up his ad vantage. for he was dazed. It had left him breathless. amazed, incred, ulous. He stood for a full minute his face gone white with the over whelmine wonder of this thing that had happened to him. and then the blunt direCtness which was part of his inheritance from his father re turned To him.
 Well, anyhow. we're to be en- gagged al last" he said
 No" she rebukcd him. with a sudden flash of mischief. that was perfectly wicked. and you mustn't do il again"
 "Rut will" he said. advancing with heightened color.
 You mustn't she said firmly. and although she did not recede farther from him he stopped. You mustn't make it hard for us. Bob bv. she warned him, T am under promise. too; and that's all can tell YOU"
 The governor again." said Bob by. T suppose by that I'm not to talk to you about marrying. nor you to listen until I have proved my right and ability to take care of you and your fortune and mine. Is that it?"
 She smiled inscrutahly.
 What brings you al this unearth- ly hour?" she asked by way of eva sion. Some business prctext. I'll be bound"
 "Of course il is" he assured her. This morning you are strictly in the rIc of my trustee. want you to look at some property"
 But I have an appointment with my dressmaker." The drcSsmaker must wait What a warning," she laughed If you would order mere-a mere acquaintance around so peremptor- i fly. what would you do if you were married?"
 I'd be boss" announced Bobby, with calm confidence
 "Indeed?" she mocked, and start ed into the library. You'd ask per mission first, wouldn't you?"
 Where are you going" he quer jed in return, and grinned.
 TO telephone my dressmakcr," she admitted, smiling, and realiz- ing 100, that il was not all ban 1 ter.
 T told you to remember" assert l ed Bobby. with strange new sense of masrerrulness which would not down.
 When she came down again l dressed for the trip, he was still l in that dazed elation. and ii lasted | through their brisk ride to the far outskirts of the city, where, at the side of a watery marsh that ex- tended for nearly a mile along the roadway. he halted.
 This is it." waving his hand across the dismal waste.
 "It." she repeated. "What?"
 The property that it was sug gested buy"
 No wonder your father thought l it necessary to appoint a trustee was her first comment. Why. Bob | by. what on earth could you do with it? It's too large for a frog | farm and too small for a summer resort" and once more she turned incredulous eyes upon the prop erty."
 Dark, oily water covered the en- | tire eXpanSe, and through it emerg ed, here and there, clumps of dank vegetation, from the nature and dispersement of which one could judge that the water varied from one to three feet in depth. Higher ground surrounded it on all sides, and the urgent needs of surburban growth had scattered few small. cheap cottages, here and there. up on the hills.
 Tt doesn't seem very attractive until you consider those houses" Bobby confessed. You must remem- Der that the city hasn't room to grow, and must take note that it is trying to spread in this direction. Wouldn't a fellow be doing rather public spirited thing. and one in which he might take quite a bit of satisfaction. if he drained that swamp, filled it, laid out streets and turned the whole stretch into a cluster of homes in place of breedinS-place for fevers?"
 You talk just like a civic i'm provement society" she said. laugh ing
 We cid have a chap featuring on that down at the club a few nights ago. he admitted, and maybe I