with all
the coaxing power of my soul, you just can't refuse, can you, papa?"

"I think perhaps I would have consented over the telephone, Alma."

"Then I may take the car?" Her playful tones rose in ecstatic crescendo.
The impulsiveness of her nature was displayed by her manner in accepting
this favor. She danced to her father and threw her arms about him.
She exhibited as much delight as if he had bestowed upon her a gift of
priceless pearls. The exuberance of her joy appeared to annoy him a bit.

"Gently, gently, Alma! If you waste your thanks in this manner for a
little favor, what will you do some day for superlatives when you are
really eager to thank some-body for a big gift?"

"Oh, I'll always have thanks enough to go around--that's my disposition.
The folks who love me, I can love them twice as much. You're a dear old
dad, and I know you want me to run along so that you can go to making a
lot more money. So I'll just take myself out from underfoot."

When she turned she glanced again at the person near the window, and
this time she got a good look at his face. Even the veil could not
hide from Bradish the color which spread into her cheeks. She was so
conscious of her embarrassment and of her appearance that she did not
turn her face to her father when he spoke to her.

"One moment, Alma! Seeing that my big car is going to have a two days'
vacation in the country, I may as well make it do one last business
errand for me."

He called Bradish to the desk by a side jerk of the head.

"I want that check put into the hands of the brokerage firm of Mower
Brothers as quickly as possible. My car is at the door, and it may as
well take you along. Alma, allow this young man of ours to ride with you
to the place where I'm sending him."

He did not present Bradish to Miss Marston. Bradish did not expect the
financier to do so. But this dismissal of him as a mere errand-boy--with
the young lady staring him out of countenance in a half-frightened
way--did cut the pride a bit, even in the case of a mere clerk. And
this clerk was pondering on the memory that only the night before he
had clasped this young lady--then a party unknown who was evidently bent
upon an escapade _incog_.--had encircled this selfsame maiden with his
arms during many blissful dances in one of the gorgeous Broadway public
ball-rooms. And he had regaled her and a girl friend on viands for which
his twenty-five-dollar check had scarcely sufficed t