d.

"I imagine she is," he said calmly. "At any rate, she's going to prove
or disprove your precious hypothesis."

"I'm not afraid for Jerry," I growled. "No chameleon will change _his_
color. What else did she say?"

"She was very much pleased at Jerry's compliment.

"'Someone has taught you to be very polite,' she said with a smile.

"'Polite?' asked Jerry. 'Merely because I was hoping you weren't
flabby?'

"'Well, I'm not flabby,' she smiled indulgently. 'I hate flabby
people.'

"'I don't see any reason why a woman should be different from a man,'
Jerry went on. 'Men don't cry, why should women? I've always thought
the Greeks were right. To me there's only one sin the world and that's
weakness.'

"You'll pardon me, Pope, if I say that he sounded very much like you,"
he laughed. "He had the preaching tone, the assertiveness. It was most
amusing. Imagine the paradox, this babe, an ascetic and this
worldling, a sybarite, meeting upon a common ground! For I really
believe she was sincere about her self-sufficiency. Whatever her
tastes, she's no weakling."

"But she's trivial, a smatterer, a decadent--"

"And handsome," laughed Ballard. "Don't forget that."

"Mere looks will never ensnare Jerry."

"I hope not, but she'll teach him a thing or two before she's through
with him."

I was silent for some moments, and then: "What else do you know of
this girl?" I asked.

"Nothing. I've painted you the picture as well as I could. The
conversation that followed was unimportant. Her remarks became guarded
and later descended to the mere commonplace."

"She _is_ dangerous," I said.

"I've warned Jerry. He laughed at me."

"When was this call?" I asked.

"The day before yesterday."

"And where is Jerry today?"

"I have a notion that he is spending the afternoon with Miss Marcia
Van Wyck," he said with a smile.

CHAPTER IX

FOOT-WORK

I should very much like to have been present while Jerry made some of
his visits to the house of the girl Marcia in order to have heard with
my own ears what she said to Jerry in those first few weeks of their
acquaintance. Some of it, a very little, I did learn from Jerry's
letters to me, but much more from Jack Ballard, who visited the lady
upon his own account and supplied the missing links in my information
as to the growing friendship. But the nature of Jerry's feelings
toward her I can only surmise by my knowledge of the character of the
boy himself throug