ith her eye on the clock, and they began
to make their way back to Mr. Cord's study, as she asked:

"Why wouldn't he stay?"

"I gathered because he didn't want to. Perhaps he was afraid he'd have
to argue with Eddie about capital and labor all through lunch. And of
course he did not know that I had another beautiful daughter sleeping
off the effects of a late party, or very likely he would have
accepted."

Very likely he would.

Just as they entered the study, the telephone rang. Crystal sprang
to the instrument, brushing away her father's hand, which had moved
toward it.

"It's for me, dear," she said, and continued, speaking into the
mouthpiece: "Yes, it's I." (A pause.) "Where are you?... Oh, yes, I
know the place. I'll be there in five minutes, in a little blue car."
She hung up the receiver, sprang up, and looked very much surprised to
see Eddie and her father still there just as before. "Good-by, Eddie,"
she said, "I'm sorry, but I have an engagement. Good-by, father."

"You don't want to run me out to the golf club first?"

"Not possible, dear. The chauffeur can take you in the big car."

"Yes, but he'll scold me all the way about there not being room enough
in the garage."

Crystal was firm. "I'm sorry, but I can't, dear. This is important. I
may take a job. I'll tell you all about it this evening." And she left
the room, with a smile that kept getting entirely beyond her control.

"What's this? What's this?" cried Eddie as the door shut. "A job. You
wouldn't let Crystal take a job, would you, Mr. Cord?"

"I haven't been consulted," said Mr. Cord, taking out his new driver
again.

"But didn't you notice how excited she was. I'm sure it's decided."

"Yes, I noticed, Eddie; but it looked to me more like a man than a
job. How do you think we'd come out if I gave you a stroke and a half
a hole?"

Eddie was too perturbed even to answer.

In the meantime, Crystal was spinning along Bellevue Avenue,
forgetting to bow to her friends, and wondering why the car was going
so badly until, her eye falling on the speedometer, she noticed that
she was doing a mild thirty-five miles an hour. Sooner, therefore,
than the law allowed, she reached a small park that surrounds a statue
of Perry, and there she picked up a passenger.

Ben got in and shut the little door almost before she brought the car
to a standstill.

[Illustration: "I'll be there in five minutes, in a little blue car"]

"When you were little