next West Kensington 'bus;
"she's doing a roaring trade, and don't want any more advertisements;
and if she does she'll put up her own notices, and not use you for
billsticker."

"Grigsby may not be right this time," I reflected, as I scaled the 'bus.
"He seldom is! And haven't I triumphantly interviewed all the most
unmanageable celebrities of the last ten years, from Lord Tennyson to
the Royal baby? I suppose it's my bland appearance. It lulls suspicion
and excites curiosity. People want to see whether it is possible for any
man to _be_ such a fool as I _look_. Anyhow, I must go through with it
now, as I've let it out to Grigsby."

[Illustration: "SHE WON'T SEE YOU."]

The fact is, I was about to try to interview Miss Jenny T. Buller, the
inventress and manager of the "Brothers' Agency," perhaps the most
important social factor of the present century. In due course I found
myself opposite a smart-looking house, on whose door-plate was engraved
"The Brothers' Agency."

Being taken no doubt for a postulant Brother, I was shown upstairs into
a severe but elegant room, in the middle of which, at a huge desk loaded
with papers, sat a fashionable young lady of the frailest type of
Transatlantic beauty.

"Miss Buller, I believe."

"You will not suit," she said, after one short but decisive stare. "You
are not up to our mark."

"I don't wish to be a Brother," I replied.

"Then what do you want?" she answered.

"Miss Buller," I inquired, as if my life depended on the response, "how
did you ever think of this wonderful scheme?"

She laid down her pen, and turned in her chair; and I saw that I had
won.

"I'm tired of writing just now," she began, "and I don't mind if I tell
you.

[Illustration: "'I DON'T MIND IF I TELL YOU.'"]

"I found myself obliged to increase my income by some means. I first
thought of starting a servants' agency; but the inconvenience I
experienced from having no brothers to take me about suggested a novel
idea to me. I was wondering if other girls felt as I did, when it
flashed upon me that young men who, from any reasons, are in want of
money, might let themselves out as brothers to well-to-do damsels
possessing no fraternal relations. I immediately settled to start an
agency for this object--somewhat on the principle of 'Lady Guides'--the
full title being 'The agency for supplying Brothers to brotherless
girls, or those with unobliging brothers.' I resolved to call it shortly
'The Bro