Will you say yes now?
Or do you want till to-morrow to think it over ?" The news concerning Mother had upset me greatly, but my common-sense was not all gone.

That there was something behind his offer I believed, but, even if there were not--if it was disinterested and made simply because my unearthing of the Bay Shore "cat" had caught his fancy--I did not consider for a moment accepting it.

Not if Mother was like other women, well and strong, would I have accepted it.

In Denboro I was Roscoe Paine, and my life story was my own secret.

In New York how long would it be before that secret and my real name were known, and all the old disgrace and scandal resurrected?
"What do you say ?" asked Colton, again.