t somehow Miss Barnes caught the situation--the
sense of neglect, of the child's loneliness.

"I'll come for a month at the salary you mentioned."

"Good. Can you pack a bag and go out on the 4:10 with us? We'll send you
home in a taxi and send for you."

She considered a moment.

"All right."

She rose, explained to the head of the bureau, and later they went out
together.

"Wally, when's lunch?" demanded Isabelle.

"Now. We'll send Miss Barnes off in our cab, and pick up another. A cab
will come for you at three thirty, Miss Barnes, and we'll meet you at
the Information booth."

"I'll be there. Good-bye, Isabelle."

"Good-bye, Ann."

Wally and Isabelle made their way to his club, where she insisted upon
all the _verboten_ things for lunch.

"Are you allowed to eat that?" he demanded.

"Oh, yes, at parties."

"Don't it make you sick?"

"Yes. You're always sick after parties," she replied.

A man stopped at the table to address a few jocose remarks to Wally, and
he turned his glance upon the small girl.

"Who is your beautiful companion, Wally?" he inquired.

"My daughter, Isabelle. This is Duncan, the Club cut-up," he added to
his guest.

She inspected the man closely.

"Who cuts you up?" she inquired.

"The other club members," he retorted, followed by laughter and applause
from the surrounding tables. Isabelle beamed in the spotlight.

"I like this better than Max's club," she said, to the amusement of the
next table.

"Take us on, Wally, will you?" called one of them, and at his invitation
they all moved over.

"She doesn't look like her pretty mother, Wally," said one of them after
they were presented.

"No, poor kid, she looks like me," laughed Wally.

"I look like Wally, but I'm smart!" she said, and beamed again at their
uproar of mirth.

She left, later, amidst reiterated invitations to come again. One man
tried to kiss her, but she promptly blocked that.

"I don't like kissing," she said.

Wally inspected her on the way to the station. Her eyes were bright, her
colour was high. She certainly had been a success at the club. There was
something about the little beggar----

"I liked those men," she remarked.

"You were too fresh," he said, anxious to prick the bubble of her
egotism. She made no answer, but he had the uncomfortable feeling that
she knew he had been proud of her.

"If you like this new girl, and want her to stay, you've got to turn
over a new leaf," he wa