arky, have you been out with Pinkie?" cried Flossie. "Answer me."

"That's the man. Certainly," declared Mrs. Anderson.

"Well, what of it?" stammered "Marky." "I just took Pinkie down to a few
of the stores, and there you are."

"Oh, you cat!" cried Flossie, stamping her foot and clenching her fists.
"You hypocrite!"

"Now see here, I thought you girls was friends," began Zinsheimer. "Kiss
and make up, girls."

"I won't call any one names," responded Pinkie, with the air of a
martyr. "She has insulted me, but I will forgive her if she apologizes.
Marky, tell her to apologize."

"Never!" cried Flossie, swinging in a circle so abruptly that the
rattling chatelaines shot out at an angle of forty-five degrees. "I will
never speak to her again, or to you either, Marky Zinsheimer. I'm
through with both of you. In all my stage career this is the crowning
disappointment. Oh, the degradation! To be cut out by a fat blonde!"

"Marky" Zinsheimer edged toward the door.

"This," he declared, "is where Marky Zinsheimer exits smilingly."

CHAPTER IX

LOVE AND AMBITION

"And I can't do a thing with her," concluded Aunt Jane, in her recital
of Martha's shortcomings, while Clayton listened with an amused air at
the story of his ward's latest adventure. "She's headstrong and
unreliable, and though I love her as I would my own daughter, I think it
is time for you to talk to her seriously. When a chorus girl commences
to receive hundred-dollar bills and diamonds, she can't stay in my house
until I know who sends them, and why. That's all. That's why I
telephoned you to come right over."

"I'm glad you 'phoned me, Aunt Jane," said Clayton. "I missed a pretty
important business engagement at dinner to be here, but I gathered from
your message that something important had developed. I fancy Martha will
tell us all about it. After all, it's no crime to admire Martha. I
admire her myself. The change in her has been wonderful. I had no idea
when I first brought her here that a few months in New York would result
in such swift development."

"It's been swift all right, Mr. Clayton. I'll tell her you're here."

Clayton awaited Martha's coming with mingled emotions of pleasure and
regret, pleasure at seeing her, for he had grown genuinely to like and
admire her; regret, for he feared she was beginning to find her
self-imposed bonds a trifle wearisome. In that case, of course, their
compact would be at an end, for, though th