she's so
pretty that even women forgive her. Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes. Why do I want to bite Paul Gresham?"

"Hush!" admonished Loring. "He is the remnant of one of our very best
imported families, and he needs the money. He sells a piece of father's
property every year, and he haunts Miss Joy like a pestilence. I think
he's mixed up in her million some way or other. Aunt Pattie approves of
him very much; she is strong for family."

"I'll bite him yet," decided Gamble. "Say, Loring, how am I going to
make a stringless million?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be your lawyer," declared Loring. "Excuse
me, Johnny; there's a client of mine."

CHAPTER II

IN WHICH STRANGERS BECOME OLD FRIENDS

Into the box where Miss Constance Joy--slender and dark and
tall--entertained her bevy of admirers, there swished a
violently-gowned young woman of buxom build and hearty manner, attended
by a young man who wore a hundred-dollar suit and smiled feebly
whenever he caught an eye. In his right hand he carried Miss Polly
Parsons' gloves and parasol; in his left, her race-card and hand-bag.
Round his shoulders swung her field-glasses; from his right pocket
protruded her fan and from his left her auto veil. She carried her own
vanity box.

"If you aren't the darlingest thing in the world!" she greeted Miss
Joy, whose face had lighted with a smile of both amusement and
pleasure. "You certainly are some Con! Every time I see you in a new
gown I change my dressmaker. Hello, boys!" She shook hands cordially
with all of them as soon as she had paid her brief respects to Mrs.
Pattie Boyden, who was pleasant and indulgent enough in her greeting,
though not needlessly so.

"You're looking as happy as ever, Polly," observed Constance.

"I'm as happy as a mosquito in a baby's crib," avowed Polly. "I've
added three thousand to-day to the subscription list for our Ocean View
Baby Hotel. Where's that list, Sammy?"

Sammy Chirp passed a few things from his right to his left hand and
searched a few pockets; passed a few things from his left to his right
hand, dropped the lady's handkerchief and picked it up, smiled feebly
upon everybody, and then at last produced the subscription list, which
Miss Joy read most interestedly.

"That's splendid, Polly!" she approved. "Another day's work as good as
this, and we'll be able to buy our hotel."

Paul Gresham, standing stiffly between her and Polly, looked down at
her and smil