hat you ain't," he went on emphatically. Then he added as though to
clinch his statement, "not by a sight."

This brought him to a sudden and uncomfortable stop. He knew he ought
to go on piling up compliment on compliment to make good his point.
But he had emptied his brain cells by his threefold denial, and now
found himself groping in something which was little better than a
vacuum. And in his trouble he found himself wishing he was gifted with
Sunny's wit. Wild Bill's force would have carried him through, or even
Sandy Joyce's overweening confidence would have kept his head above
water. As it was he was stuck. Hopelessly, irretrievably at the end of
his resources.

He perspired in reality now, and let his knees drop out of his arms.
This movement was his salvation. With the relaxing of his physical
effort the restraining grip upon his thinking powers gave way.
Inspiration leaped, and he found himself talking again almost before
he was aware of it.

"You're a real pretty gal, Birdie," he heard himself saying. "Now,
maybe you got some kids?" he added, with an automatic grin of
ingratiation.

How the inquiry slipped out he never knew. How it had been formulated
in his brain remained a riddle that he was never able to solve. But
there it was, plain and decided. There was no shirking it. It was out
in all its naked crudeness.

There was a moment's pause which might have been hours, it seemed so
horribly long to the waiting man. He became dimly aware of a sudden
hardening in Birdie's eyes, a mounting flush to her cheeks and
forehead, a sudden, astounding physical movement, and then the
work-worn palm of her hand came into contact with his cheek with such
force as to prove the value to her physical development of the
strenuous labors which were hers.

He never thought a woman's hand could sting so much. He never thought
that he could be made to feel so mean as this girl's sudden vehemence
made him feel.

"How dare you, you bumming remittance feller?" she cried, with eyes
blazing and bosom heaving. "How dare you--you--you--" And then she
further punished him with that worst of all feminine punishments--she
burst into tears.

The next few moments were never quite clear to the distracted and
unthinking Toby. He never really knew what actually happened. He had a
confused memory of saying things by way of apology, of making several
pacific overtures, which met with physical rebuffs of no mean order,
and tearful upbr