earth you could have been doing in
Finnegan's saloon."

Jerry sipped at his tea and was silent. The girl's eyes still
questioned good-humoredly and then, still smiling, looked away. But
Jerry would not speak. A coward she had once called him. Was it that
he feared her sober judgment of this wild plan of his? Did he see
something hazardous in the conservatism of her calm slate-blue eyes
that would put his new mode of thought, his new habit of mind to tests
which they might not survive?

"I--I said it was on business of Flynn's," he evaded at last. "He's a
very good friend of mine. It wouldn't interest you in the least, you
know," he finished lamely.

"Possibly not," she said calmly. "I hope you'll forgive my
impertinence."

He felt the change in her tone and was up in arms at once. "Don't talk
in that way, Una. I'd let you know if there was any possible use." He
paused and then decidedly, "But there isn't, you see. Won't you take
my word for it?"

She laughed at his serious demeanor.

"You know I _am_ a curious creature, unduly so about this. But you
_do_ seem a little like the Caliph in the Arabian Nights, or Prince
Florizel in London. You aren't a second-story man, are you? Or a
member of a suicide club?"

He gazed at her in perplexity and then laughed. "You're just as real
as ever, aren't you?"

"Real! I should hope so. But _you_ aren't. The first time I see you,
you're a woodland philosopher, living on berries and preaching in the
wilderness; the second time, you're merely a caged enthusiast without
a mission; the third time you're Haroun al Raschid, smoking cigarettes
at Finnegan's. I wonder what you're going to be next."

He felt the light sting of irony, but her humor disarmed him.

"I'm not going to be anything else," he said slowly. "And I'm not an
enthusiast without a mission. I may have been then, but I'm not now.
You don't just understand. I'm pretty busy in a way, learning the
ropes, business, social and all the rest of them, but I'm not idle.
I'm learning something all the time, Una, and I'm going to try to
help--I can, too."

"Do you really mean that?" she asked incredulously when he paused.

"Yes, I mean it. I want to try to help right away, if you'll let me.
See here, Una--" He leaned across the table in a sudden burst of
enthusiasm. "I don't want you to think that I've ever said anything I
don't mean. I said up there at Horsham Manor that I wanted to help you
in your work, and I'm going