-girl by the river's brim, so to speak, a simple chorus-girl is to
him, as it were, and she is nothing more, if you know what I mean."

"So now," said Lucille, "having shown you that the imbecile scheme which
you concocted with my poor well-meaning husband is no good at all, I
will bring you words of cheer. Your own original plan--of getting your
Mabel a part in a comedy--was always the best one. And you can do it.
I wouldn't have broken the bad news so abruptly if I hadn't had some
consolation to give you afterwards. I met Reggie van Tuyl just now,
wandering about as if the cares of the world were on his shoulders,
and he told me that he was putting up most of the money for a new play
that's going into rehearsal right away. Reggie's an old friend of yours.
All you have to do is to go to him and ask him to use his influence to
get your Mabel a small part. There's sure to be a maid or something with
only a line or two that won't matter."

"A ripe scheme!" said Archie. "Very sound and fruity!"

The cloud did not lift from Bill's corrugated brow.

"That's all very well," he said. "But you know what a talker Reggie
is. He's an obliging sort of chump, but his tongue's fastened on at the
middle and waggles at both ends. I don't want the whole of New York to
know about my engagement, and have somebody spilling the news to father,
before I'm ready."

"That's all right," said Lucille. "Archie can speak to him. There's no
need for him to mention your name at all. He can just say there's a girl
he wants to get a part for. You would do it, wouldn't you, angel-face?"

"Like a bird, queen of my soul."

"Then that's splendid. You'd better give Archie that photograph of Mabel
to give to Reggie, Bill."

"Photograph?" said Bill. "Which photograph? I have twenty-four!"

Archie found Reggie van Tuyl brooding in a window of his club that
looked over Fifth Avenue. Reggie was a rather melancholy young man who
suffered from elephantiasis of the bank-roll and the other evils
that arise from that complaint. Gentle and sentimental by nature, his
sensibilities had been much wounded by contact with a sordid world; and
the thing that had first endeared Archie to him was the fact that the
latter, though chronically hard-up, had never made any attempt to borrow
money from him. Reggie would have parted with it on demand, but it
had delighted him to find that Archie seemed to take a pleasure in his
society without having any ulterior motives. H