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"Don't be troubled; she's not a silly girl, but has good sense and good judgment. She will treat your offer as an honor, and will be happy to have a man like you for a husband." "Never mind about that," said the professor, in a calmer tone. "Tell me how the matter really stands. What have you been doing all this time?" In relating his story, Mr. Liakos did not tell his friend everything.
The tactful cousin had felt that it would be better to leave the young lady alone with her suitor; then, too, the younger sister would not come, and the presence of Mr. Liakos was quite unnecessary; her instructions were that he should spend the evening with her husband at the club. Mr. Plateas felt his knees give way under him. What go in and face the two ladies all alone!
"She doesn't know her own worth; she sees that she is not pretty, and in her humility she even exaggerates her plainness; but her sweet unselfishness is no reason why she should be sacrificed." "Do you think, then, that it would be a sacrifice to marry Mr. Plateas?" "How can we tell?" His cousin's reserve was more propitious than her merriment of a few minutes ago, and Mr. Liakos felt encouraged.
He was about to say something, he didn't know exactly what, when Mr. Mitrophanis forestalled him, and ended his embarrassment. "It is well. I will await Mr. Liakos." Then the old gentleman bowed and walked on. Never in his life had the professor been in such a state of mental distress as that to which he had been a prey ever since the evening before.
Plateas," began the old man, with a touch of irony in his tone. "Yes; the fact is he has communicated to me the conversation he had with you this morning." "I must say, Mr. Liakos, that your anxiety to find a husband for my elder daughter seems to me rather marked." "I assure you, sir, that my friend's proposal was wholly voluntary, and was in no wise prompted by me."
Plateas asked so many questions and the judge had to repeat each detail so often, that the sun was setting when the two friends went back to do justice to Florou's supper. They had scarcely finished when there was a knock at the door, and Florou came in with a note for Mr. Liakos. Mr.
Liakos superintended the poor man's toilet, and having made him look as fine as possible, marched him off. He would have given almost anything to be well out of the scrape, but it was too late to retreat now. As they went along, the judge tried in vain to impart some of his own high spirits to his faint-hearted friend.
And he pointed to a modest cafe, "On the Sands," which a bold speculator had improvized only a few weeks before, by making a small inclosure of planks and setting up a few tables. The professor turned toward the cafe, then looked at the setting sun, took out his watch, glanced at the hour, and heaved a gentle sigh. "You do whatever you please with me," he said, as he followed Mr. Liakos.
Liakos was taking his bath near by, and when he saw the professor disappear in that extraordinary fashion, and the circles widening on the surface, he at once understood what had happened. Swimming rapidly to the spot, he dived down, managed to grasp the drowning man, dragged him to the surface, and brought him ashore unconscious. Thanks to these prompt measures, Mr.
"But why do you tell me all this?" he asked. "Why do you sing her praises to me? What do you mean are you trying to inveigle me into marrying her?" Mr. Liakos was astounded. The idea had never occurred to him; he had never thought of the professor as a marrying man. And yet, why not? In what was he lacking? Wasn't his friend the very man to become the brother-in-law he so ardently desired?
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