these matters to her.

"I am, and a pretty keen one," said he.

"And do you know how to reorganize _banks?_"

"I can reorganize 'em like the devil," said Hugo sincerely; for if a man
does not want a woman to boast a little before now and then, he does not
want her at all....

His papers and his telegrams, his periods of engrossment in business and
telephone-calls from his secretary, seemed to invest him with a certain
new dignity. A subtle change in his manner was now perceptible. It was
as if he had moulted some of the gay plumage of the wooing-season, and
unconsciously begun to gather something of the authority of the coming
head of a great house. Like many men who have long enjoyed but eluded
the wiles of lovely woman, Canning clearly contemplated the married
estate with profound gravity. In his absence he had communicated his
good news to both his parents, though one was in Boston and the other,
his father, in Washington: testifying, in short, before a Congressional
Investigation Committee. He was not especially detailed as to what they
had said, beyond their general expressions of pleasure; but it was clear
that he regarded it as of the first importance that they should
be pleased.

Matters now, indeed, began to assume a distinctly serious and
responsible complexion. The days of purely idyllic romance seemed to
slip behind; the engagement more and more took shape as the gateway to
an alliance of institutional consequence, entailing far-reaching
reactions in various directions. Mamma's remarks made it plain that,