es. "I wouldn't stand
it if I were you. Show your spunk."

He stared. "What do you mean?"

"Why don't you jilt ME?"

"Jilt you?"

Her head went up and down in a dozen little nods of affirmation. "Yes.
Marry Pauline Gillam. You know you'd like to, but you haven't had the
courage to give me up. Now that you've got to give me up anyhow--"

"I'm very much obliged, Miss Frome. But I don't think it will be
necessary for you to select another wife for me."

"Have you been married once. I didn't know it."

"You know what I mean?" He was stiff as a poker.

"I believe I do." She was in a perfectly good humor again now. "But
you better take my advice, Ned. Think what a joke it will be on me.
Everybody will say you could have had me."

"We'll not discuss the subject if you please."

Nevertheless Alice knew that she had dropped a seed on good ground.

CHAPTER 20

Now poor Tom Dunstan's cold,
Our shop is duller;
Scarce a tale is told,
And our talk has lost the old
Red-republican color!

.............

'She's coming, she's coming!' said he;
'Courage, boys I wait and see!
'FREEDOM'S AHEAD!'
--Robert Buchanan.

THE HERO IS LURED TO AN ADVENTURE INTO THE UNCONVENTIONAL AND HEARS MUCH
THAT IS PAINFUL TO A WELL-REGULATED MIND

Near the close of a fine spring afternoon James Farnum and Alice Frome
were walking at the lower end of Powers Avenue. In the conventional garb
he affected since he had become a man of substance the lawyer might have
served as a model of fashion to any aspiring youth. His silk hat, his
light trousers, the double-breasted coat which enfolded his manly form,
were all of the latest design. The weather, for a change, was behaving
itself so as not to soil the chaste glory of Solomon thus displayed.
There had been rain and would be more, but just now they passed through
a dripping world shot full of sunlight.

"Of course I'm no end flattered at being allowed to go with you. But I'm
dying of curiosity to know where we are going."

The young woman gave James her beguiling smile. "We're going to call on
a sick man. I'm taking you along as chaperon. You needn't be flattered
at all. You're merely a convenience, like a hat pin or an umbrella."

"But I'm not sure this is proper. Now as your chaperone--"

"You're not that kind of a chaperon, Mr. Farnum. You haven't any
privileges. Nothing but duties. Unless it's a privilege to be chosen.
T