limax with this present invitation to
dine at his house, either his intentions were not avowable or else he
was very much in love and wanted to marry her, which last hypothesis
sent a thrill down the good sister's back. Virgie the wife of a
millionaire! It seemed incredible--too good to be true. It would be
the making of all of them. She was glad Jimmie had brought up the
subject.

"Did you know then who he was?" she asked.

Virginia laughed as if the question amused her.

"No," she replied, "to tell you the truth, I didn't much care. A girl
who handles a telephone desk at our hotel hasn't got much time to
bother about anything else."

"When _did_ you find out?" inquired Jimmie, suddenly taking a
lively interest in the conversation.

"About a month later--that day he sent downstairs for a stenographer.
I told you all about it at the time. I asked at the desk if it was all
right to go to his rooms. They told me who he was and explained that
he often transacted a lot of business there. That's how we got
acquainted. Since then, as you know, I have seen a great deal of him,
telephoning and doing copying for him. He has been very kind, indeed.
One day he asked me to go to dinner with him--"

"Did you?" demanded Jimmie.

"Certainly not," replied the girl emphatically. "Then he used to come
nearly every day. One time I--I think he had been--drinking."

"He was--drunk?" exclaimed Fanny in surprise.

"Oh, no! Not that," said Virginia quickly, "but I could see he had
been drinking."

"Just lit up a bit to show that he's human, eh?" said Jimmie with a
grin.

Paying no attention to the interruption, Virginia went on:

"I didn't like him quite so much after that. He asked me again--"

"And you wouldn't?" interrupted Fanny.

"Of course not!"

Jimmie chuckled. Crossing his legs and striking the ashes from his
cigar, he said:

"Say, but that was foxy!"

"What was?" demanded Virginia quickly.

"Making him think that he having money made no difference."

"It didn't."

"Sure it didn't," he laughed. "That was the way to play it."

"What do you mean?" cried the girl indignantly. "I wasn't 'playing'
anything or anybody."

Paying no heed to the frantic signs which Fanny was making for him to
keep silent, the shipping clerk went on:

"Why not? It's all in the game."

Ignoring him, Virginia continued:

"He finally asked me to dine with him here and to bring you and Jim. I
had told him about your being engaged.