f Lord
Yawpingham to the front door. Polly opened it for him, and, grabbing
Gresham's silk hat, put it hastily askew and hindside before upon his
bewildered head.

Johnny did not strike him or shove him, but the graceful and
self-possessed Gresham, attempting desperately to recover those
qualities and to leave with dignity, stumbled over the door-mat and
scrambled wildly down the stone steps, struggling to retain his balance.

Colonel Bouncer, just starting up the steps with Loring, Sammy Chirp,
Winnie, Val Russel and Mrs. Follison, hastily and automatically gave
him a helping shove on the shoulder which sent him sprawling to the
walk, where he completed his interesting exhibition by turning a back
somersault.

"Glimmering gosh, Colonel!" protested Val, as he hurried to pick up
Gresham, laughing, however, as did the others, on account of the
neighbors. "Why did you do that?"

"I thought Johnny Gamble pushed him," humbly apologized the colonel.

Bruce Townley and the Courtney girls arrived, and in the gay scramble
for wraps Johnny had a moment with Constance.

"Well, I lose," he said regretfully. "There isn't much chance to make
that million between now and four o'clock to-morrow afternoon."

"What's the difference?" inquired Constance, smiling contentedly into
his eyes.

Only the presence of so many people prevented her fichu from being
mussed.

"There's a lot of difference," he asserted with a suddenly renewed
impulse, the world being greatly changed since she had refused Gresham.
"I set out to get it, and I won't give it up until four o'clock
to-morrow afternoon."

"If you want it so very badly I hope that you get it then," she gently
assured him.

Her shoulder happened to touch his arm and he pressed against it as
hard as he could. She resisted him.

"Ready, Constance?" called Polly.

"In just a minute," Johnny took it on himself to reply. "How does the
score board look by this time?"

Constance hesitated, then she blushed and drew from a drawer of the
library table the score board. The neatly ruled pasteboard had been
roughly torn into seven pieces--but it had been carefully pasted
together again!

CHAPTER XXIII

IN WHICH THE BRIGHT EYES OF CONSTANCE "RAIN INFLUENCE"

There being no cozy corners aboard Mr. Courtney's snow-white Albatross
in which a couple with many important things to say could be free from
prying observation, Johnny and Constance behaved like normal human
beings who