st hug you for that. What a really
talented young liar you are! And how thoroughly delightful of you to do
it!"

"Oh, I don't know," says I. "Anyway, it's the picture he showed me when
he was tellin' about you."

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind, Torchy," she goes on, "telling me just what
he said."

"Why, for one thing," says I, "he let out that you was the most
fascinatin' woman in the world."

Another ripply laugh from Bonnie. "The old dear!" says she. "But then,
he always was a little silly about me. Think of his never having gotten
over it in all these years, though! But he didn't stay to meet me. How
was that?"

I hope I made it convincin' about his being called before a Senate
Committee and how he was hoping to get back before she showed up. I told
it as well as I could with them wise friendly eyes watchin' me.

"Perhaps, after all," says she, "it's just as well. If I had known he
had this photo I never would have risked coming. Now that I'm here,
however, I wish there was someone who----"

"Oh, he fixed that up," says I. "I'm the substitute."

"You!" says she. Then she shakes her head. "You're a dear boy," she goes
on, "but I couldn't ask it of you. Really!"

"Sure you can," says I. "You want to see what the old town looks like,
have a little dinner in one of the old joints, and maybe make a little
round of the bright spots afterwards. Well, I got it all planned out.
Course, I can't do it just the way Mr. Ellins would but----"

"Listen, Torchy," she breaks in. "I regret to admit the fact, but I am a
fat, shapeless, freaky-looking old woman. Ordinarily that doesn't worry
me in the least. After fifteen years in the tropics one doesn't worry
about how one looks. It has been a long time since I've given it a
thought. But now--Well, it's different. Seeing that picture. No, I can't
ask it of you."

"Mr. Ellins will ask me, though, when he gets back," says I. "Besides, I
don't mind. Maybe you are a little overweight, but I'm beginnin' to
suspect you're a reg'lar person, after all; and if I can qualify as a
guide----"

Say, don't let on to Vee, but that's where I got hugged. It seems Bonnie
does want to have one glimpse of New York with the lights on; wants it
the worst way. For when she'd come up from Rio her one idea was to get
back to the old farm, fix it up regardless of expense, and camp down
there quiet for the rest of her days. She'd had a bully time doin' it,
too, for three or four months. She'd enjoye