Romance of a youth enamoured of a girl who loves another. He is freed of his infatuation when a practical joke by his fellow office clerks causes him to stand waiting in her garden during a three hour downpour, and to be shot in the arm trying to elope with her, and to catch fever from both. She marries her other suitor, the narrator marries his cousin and inherits a share in his uncle's business thereby. (PB)