secured an interpreter. She
arranged her samples with loving care. Style, cut, workmanship--she
ran over their strong points in her mind. She looked at them as a
mother's eyes rest fondly on the shining faces, the well-brushed hair,
the clean pinafores of her brood. And her heart swelled with pride.
They lay on their tables, the artful knickerbockers, the gleaming
petticoats, the pink and blue pajamas, the bifurcated skirts. Emma
McChesney ran one hand lightly over the navy blue satin folds of a
sample.

"Pages or no Pages, you're a credit to your mother," she said,
whimsically.

Up in her room once more, she selected her smartest tailor costume, her
most modish hat, the freshest of gloves and blouses.

She chose the hours between four and six, when wheel traffic was
suspended in the Calle Florida and throughout the shopping-district,
the narrow streets of which are congested to the point of suffocation
at other times.

As she swung down the street they turned to gaze after her--these
Argentines. The fat senoras turned, and the smartly costumed, sallow
senoritas, and the men--all of them. They spoke to her, these last,
but she had expected that, and marched on with her free, swinging
stride, her chin high, her color very bright. Into the great shop of
Pages y Hernandez at last, up to the private offices, her breath coming
a little quickly, into the presence of the shiny secretary--shiny
teeth, shiny hair, shiny skin, shiny nails. He gazed upon Emma
McChesney, the shine gleaming brighter. He took in his slim, brown
fingers the card on which Senor Pages had scribbled that day on board
ship. The shine became dazzling. He bowed low and backed his way into
the office of Senor Pages.

A successful man is most impressive when in those surroundings which
have been built up by his success. On shipboard, Senor Pages had been
a genial, charming, distinguished fellow passenger. In his luxurious
business office he still was genial, charming, but his environment
seemed to lend him a certain austerity.

"Senora McChesney!"

("How awful that sounds!" Emma McChesney told herself.)

"We spoke of you but last night. And now you come to win the wager,
yes?" He smiled, but shook his head.

"Yes," replied Emma McChesney. And tried to smile, too.

Senor Pages waved a hand toward the outer office.

"She is with you, this business friend who is also so charming?"

"Oh, yes," said Emma McChesney, "she's--she's with