," sneered Zoie. "YOU needn't worry," and she
fixed her eyes upon him with a scornful expression that left no doubt as
to her opinion that he was a craven coward.

"But you said he'd 'found out,'" stammered Jimmy.

"He's found out that I ate with a MAN," answered Zoie, more and more
aggrieved at having to employ so much detail in the midst of her
distress. "He doesn't know it was you."

"But Zoie----" protested Jimmy.

She lifted a small hand, begging him to spare her further questions.
It was apparent that she must explain each aspect of their present
difficulty, with as much patience as though Jimmy were in reality only a
child. She sank into her chair and then proceeded, with a martyred air.

"You see it was like this," she said. "Alfred came into the restaurant
just after we had gone out and Henri, the waiter who has taken care
of him for years, told him that I had just been in to luncheon with a
gentleman."

Jimmy shifted about on the edge of his chair, ill at ease.

"Now if Alfred had only told me that in the first place," she continued,
"I'd have known what to say, but he didn't. Oh no, he was as sweet as
could be all through breakfast and last night too, and then just as he
was leaving this morning, I said something about luncheon and he said,
quite casually, 'Where did you have luncheon YESTERDAY, my dear?' So I
answered quite carelessly, 'I had none, my love.' Well, I wish you could
have seen him. He called me dreadful things. He says I'm the one thing
he can't endure."

"What's that?" questioned Jimmy, wondering how Alfred could confine
himself to any "ONE thing."

"He says I'm a liar!" shrieked Zoie tearfully.

"Well, aren't you?" asked Jimmy.

"Of course I am," declared Zoie; "but why shouldn't I be?" She looked
at Jimmy with such an air of self-approval that for the life of him he
could find no reason to offer. "You know how jealous Alfred is," she
continued. "He makes such a fuss about the slightest thing that I've got
out of the habit of EVER telling the TRUTH." She walked away from
Jimmy as though dismissing the entire matter; he shifted his position
uneasily; she turned to him again with mock sweetness. "I suppose YOU
told AGGIE all about it?" she said.

Jimmy's round eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped lower. "I--I--don't
believe I did," he stammered weakly. "I didn't think of it again."

"Thank heaven for that!" concluded Zoie with tightly pressed lips. Then
she knotted her small whi