ice-cream soda in the hot
weather, which cost money. Besides, even had she possessed the
dollars, she lacked energy of late. It was easier to keep on doing
what one had done than do anything new. And, in any case, nothing that
one did seemed to matter.

As for the lion tamer, Peter Rolls's shop saw him no more. He had "got
his nerve back" and had returned to lion taming, not because the old
life drew him irresistibly, but because there was far more money in
dominating real lions than in selling Teddy ones.

In the birth of Earl Usher's adoring love for Win the demise of the
animal who had "died on him" was forgotten. "Nerve" and courage and
love and the desire to conquer were one in his heart. When a "good
summer job at Coney" came his way, through an old friend in the "show
business," he took it.

Reluctant as he was to leave Peter Rolls, which meant leaving "his
girl," a change of position offered the only hope of obtaining her in
the end. And despite every discouragement from his Lygia, Ursus did
secretly cherish this hope. As she no longer lived in Toyland when he
went, the wrench of parting was not what it would have been to leave
her at the mercy of any man who could afford to buy a doll. There was
no excuse for men to "butt into" Mantles, unless accompanied by female
belongings, and thus accompanied, their sting was gone.

At Coney Island Ursus was earning thirty dollars a week instead of
ten, and was encouraged by crowds of admiring girls (who watched his
performance and bought his photographs) to consider himself
exceedingly eligible on that income. Many indeed made it plain to him
that he would have been worth taking for his face, his muscles, and
his spangled tights alone.

Sometimes on Sundays Sadie Kirk persuaded Win to "go to Coney for a
blow." The crowd on the boats was alarming and on the beach when you
got there, but the air was splendid, and poor Ursus beamed over his
lions' heads with pride and pleasure. These few excursions, however,
had been Winifred's only outings, except a play or two seen from a
gallery, since she came to make her fortune in America; and as each
day the heat pressed more heavily upon her with its leaden weight, she
felt that she would collapse and "do something stupid" if she could
not have a change. Anything--anything at all that was different and
would break the monotony!

Lily Leavitt, who was in the Mantles, too, had never ceased to be
friendly, and had often invited