"They will think I am the luckiest man in America." Isaac smiled. But then he added, soberly, "Any who don't can go straight to hell. Shall we set a date?"

"Isaac . . . I have to talk to you."

"What is it? Is something the matter?"

"I am deeply in love with you. I hope you know that."

"You show me in every way."

"And I want ever so much to marry you. But I wonder if we could wait a little while."

"Why?"

"I've been offered an exciting job, and it is something I would like to try very much."

"What sort of job?"

"Well . . . you know who Preston Whiteway is, of course?"

"Of course. Preston Whiteway is a yellow journalist who inherited three of California's leading newspapers, including the San Francisco Inquirer." He gave her a curious smile. "The newspaper you happen to work for ... He's said to be quite handsome and a celebrated 'man-about-town,' and he flaunts his wealth, which he earns publishing sensationalist headlines. He's also sunk his hooks into national politics by using the power of his newspapers to get his friends appointed to the United States Senate--first among them Osgood Hennessy's lapdog legislator, Senator Charles Kincaid. In fact, I believe that it was your Mr. Whiteway who gave Kincaid the moniker 'Hero Engineer."'

"He's not my Mr. Whiteway, but--Oh, Isaac, he has a wonderful new idea. He came up with it while the paper was reporting on the earthquake--a moving-picture newsreel. He's calling it Picture World. They'll take moving pictures of actual events and play them in theaters and nickelodeons. And, Isaac!"--she gripped his arm in her excitement--"Preston asked me to help get it started."

"For how long?"

"I'm not sure. Six months or a year. Isaac, I know I can do this. And this man will give me a chance to try. You know that I took my degree in law in Stanford's first graduating class, but a woman can't get a job in law, which is why I've worked nine years in banking. I've learned so much. It's not that I want to work my whole life. But I want to make something, and this is my chance to make something."

Bell was not surprised by Marion's desire to work at an exciting job. Nor did he doubt their love. They were both too well aware of their great good fortune at having discovered each other to ever let someone come between them. Some sort of a compromise was in order. And he could not deny that he had his own hands full trying to stop the Wrecker.

"What if we were to promise that in six months we would set a date to marry? When things have settled down? You can still work and be married."

"Oh, Isaac, that would be wonderful. I so much want to be in at the beginning of Picture World."

The bells of the Magneta Clock began to strike four o'clock.