seemed to take and that you'd like to have me, but I
really, really can't."

"You know what I mean," he said, with a touch of his old bulldozing
manner.

"No, I really won't," she persisted. "Vaudeville's too--too wearing on
the nerves, my nerves, at any rate."

Whereat he looked puzzled and doubtful, and forbore to press the point
further.

But on Monday morning, when she came to his office to get her pay for
the two turns, it was he who puzzled her.

"You surely must have mistaken me," he lied glibly. "I remember saying
something about paying your car fare. We always do this, you know, but
we never, never pay amateurs. That would take the life and sparkle out
of the whole thing. No, Charley Welsh was stringing you. He gets paid
nothing for his turns. No amateur gets paid. The idea is ridiculous.
However, here's fifty cents. It will pay your sister's car fare also.
And,"--very suavely,--"speaking for the Loops, permit me to thank you
for the kind and successful contribution of your services."

That afternoon, true to her promise to Max Irwin, she placed her
typewritten copy into his hands. And while he ran over it, he nodded his
head from time to time, and maintained a running fire of commendatory
remarks: "Good!--that's it!--that's the stuff!--psychology's all
right!--the very idea!--you've caught it!--excellent!--missed it a
bit here, but it'll go--that's vigorous!--strong!--vivid!--pictures!
pictures!--excellent!--most excellent!"

And when he had run down to the bottom of the last page, holding out
his hand: "My dear Miss Wyman, I congratulate you. I must say you have
exceeded my expectations, which, to say the least, were large. You are
a journalist, a natural journalist. You've got the grip, and you're sure
to get on. The Intelligencer will take it, without doubt, and take you
too. They'll have to take you. If they don't, some of the other papers
will get you."

"But what's this?" he queried, the next instant, his face going serious.
"You've said nothing about receiving the pay for your turns, and that's
one of the points of the feature. I expressly mentioned it, if you'll
remember."

"It will never do," he said, shaking his head ominously, when she had
explained. "You simply must collect that money somehow. Let me see. Let
me think a moment."

"Never mind, Mr. Irwin," she said. "I've bothered you enough. Let me use
your 'phone, please, and I'll try Mr. Ernst Symes again."

He vacated his chair by