tect the working girl,'"

he finished lugubriously, in a wailing baritone, taking an imaginary
encore by bowing a head picturesquely adorned with a crop of excelsior
curls, accumulated during his activities in and about the barrel.

"The trouble with the average tea-room, or Arts and Crafts table
d'hote," Nancy said, sinking into the depths of a broken armchair in
the corner of the dim, overcrowded interior, "is that when the pinch
comes, quantity is sacrificed to quality. Smaller portions of food,
and chipped chinaware. People who can't keep a place up, let it run
down genteelly. They won't compromise on quality. I should never be
like that. I should go to the ten-cent stores and replenish my whole
establishment, if I couldn't make it pay with imported ware and
Colonial silver. I'd never go to the other extreme. I'd never be so
perceptibly second-rate, but in the matter of furnishings as well as
food values, I'd find my perfect balance between quality and quantity,
and keep it."

"I believe you would. You are a thorough child, when you set about a
thing. I'll bet you know the restaurant business from A to Z."

"I do. You know, I studied the organization of every well-run
restaurant in New York, when I was doing field work from Teachers'
College. I've read every book on the subject of Diet and Nutrition and
Domestic Economy that I could get my hands on. I'm just ready now for
the practical application of all my theories."

"Nancy Calory Martin is your real name. I don't blame you for
hating to give up this tea-room idea. You've dug so deep into the
possibilities of it, that you want to go through. I get that."

Nancy's eyes widened in satiric admiration.

"You could understand almost anything, couldn't you, Billy?" she
mocked.

"All I want now," Billy continued imperturbably, "is a chance to make
_you_ understand something." He smote the document in his left hand.
"Of course, your uncle's lawyer has explained all the details in his
letters to you, but if you won't read the letters or familiarize
yourself with the contents of this will, somebody has got to explain
it to you in words of one syllable. My legal training, slight as it
is--"

"Sketchy is the better word, don't you think so, Billy?"

"Slight as it is"--except for a prodigious frown, Billy ignored the
interruption, though he took advantage of her suddenly upright
position to encircle her neatly with a barrel hoop, as if she were the
iron peg in a g