t through, then handed it back,
slowly shaking his head.

"I don't see nothing to get excited about," said the ever-doubtful,
ever-hesitant Jimmie. "It's only an invitation."

"Aw, hell!" ejaculated the exasperated Barney in disgust. "If some one
handed you a government bond all you could see would be a cigar coupon!
That invitation, together with this note from Dick Sherwood saying he'll
call and take Maggie out, means that the fish is all ready to be landed.
Try to come back to life, Jimmie. If you knew anything at all about
big-league society, you'd know that sending invitations to meet the
family--that's the way these swells do things when they're all set to do
business. We're all ready for the killing--the big clean-up!"

He turned to Maggie. "Great stuff, Maggie. I knew you could put it over.
Of course you're going?"

"Of course," replied Maggie with a composure which was wholly of her
manner.

A sudden doubt came out of this glory to becloud Barney's master mind.
"I don't know," he said slowly. "It's one proposition to make one
of these men swells believe that a woman is the real thing. And it's
another proposition to put it over on one of these women swells. They've
got eyes for every little detail, and they know the difference between
the genuine article and an imitation. I've heard a lot about this Miss
Sherwood; they say she's one of the cleverest of the swells. Think you
can walk into her house and put it over on her, Maggie?"

"Of course--why not?" answered Maggie, again with that composure which
was prompted by her pride's desire to make Barney, and every one else,
believe her equal to any situation.

Barney's animation returned. "All right. If you think you can swing it,
you can swing it, and the job's the same as finished and we're made!"

Left to herself, and the imposing propriety and magnificent stupidity
of Miss Grierson, Maggie made no attempt to keep up her appearance of
confidence. All her thoughts were upon this opportunity which
insisted upon looking to her like a menace. She tried to whip her
self-confidence, of which she was so proud, into a condition of constant
pregnancy. But the plain fact was that Maggie, the misguided child of a
stolen birthright, whose soaring spirit was striving so hard to live up
to the traditions and conventions of cynicism, whose young ambition it
was to outshine and surpass all possible competitors in this world in
which she had been placed, who in her prid