There was an unbearably long silence, and as Tracy was about to break it, Charles said, "We'll get married, of course."

Tracy was filled with a sense of enormous relief. "I don't want you to think I--- You don't have to marry me, you know."

He raised a hand to stop her. "I want to marry you, Tracy. You'll make a wonderful wife." He added, slowly, "Of course, my mother and father will be a bit surprised." And he smiled and kissed her.

Tracy quietly asked, "Why will they be surprised?"

Charles sighed. "Darling, I'm afraid you don't quite realize what you're letting yourself in for. The Stanhopes always marry--- mind you, I'm using quotation marks--- 'their own kind.' Mainline Philadelphia."

"And they've already selected your wife," Tracy guessed.

Charles took her in his arms. "That doesn't matter a damn. It's whom I've selected that counts. We'll have dinner with Mother and Father next Friday. It's time you met them."

**********

At five minutes to 9:00 Tracy became aware of a difference in the noise level in the bank. The employees were beginning to speak a little faster, move a little quicker. The bank doors would open in five minutes and everything had to be in readiness. Through the front window, Tracy could see customers lined up on the sidewalk outside, waiting in the cold rain.

Tracy watched as the bank guard finished distributing fresh blank deposit and withdrawal slips into the metal trays on the six tables lined up along the center aisle of the bank. Regular customers were issued deposit slips with a personal magnetized code at the bottom so that each time a deposit was made, the computer automatically credited it to the proper account. But often customers came in without their deposit slips and would fill out blank ones.

The guard glanced up at the clock on the wall, and as the hour hand moved to 9:00, he walked over to the door and ceremoniously unlocked it.