with me
two nights ago, and to the Empire with another fellow the night before
that. It isn't in her to stick to one, she would go with any one who
would treat her. Don't worry your head over that. Matt might say 'How
about Leon and Gladys Martin.'"

"So he might, but there's no danger there. The girl is deuced
pretty--splendid eyes, hair, teeth, hands and all that sort of thing,
and I've set my heart on a bit of canoodling with her, but as for
love! Well! it's not in my programme."

"Still, stranger things have happened," Curtis said. "Anyhow, I guess
you're both mad and that I'm the only sane one. Give me a ten-course
dinner at the Savoy, and you may have all the women in London--I don't
go a cent on them."

To revert to Kelson. From the hour he had first seen Lilian Rosenberg
he had become more and more deeply enamoured. In the hope of meeting
her, he had hung about the halls and passages of the building; had
never missed an opportunity of speaking to her, of feasting himself on
the elfish beauty of her face, of squeezing her hand, and of telling
her how much he admired her.

"You really mustn't," she said. "Mr. Hamar has given me strict orders
to attend to nothing but my work."

"Oh, damn Hamar!" Kelson replied, "if I choose to talk to you it's no
business of his. You've not treated me well. I got you the post, and
it is I you should go out with, not Hamar."

And in the quiet nooks and corners, perched on the window-sill, with
one eye kept warily on the guard for fear of interruptions, he told
her his history--all about himself from the day of his birth--told her
about his parents, his childhood, his schooldays, his hobbies and
cranks, his indiscretions, extravagancies, his carousals, debts,
flirtations, with just an excusable amount of exaggeration. He even
went so far as to speak of a chronic rheumatism, of a twinge of
hereditary gout, and of a slightly hectic cough with which, he
suddenly remembered, he had at one time, been troubled.

"Don't you think," Lilian Rosenberg said, with mock earnestness, "you
are somewhat rash! Have you forgotten that no woman can keep a
secret--and you are not telling me one secret but many. Supposing in a
fit of thoughtlessness or absent-mindedness, I were to divulge them! I
should never forgive myself."

"Would it distress you so much?"

"Of course it would. I should be miserable," she laughed. And Kelson,
unable to restrain himself, seized her hands and smothered them