rits, and if she has fifty copies to present to the
family friends it will probably be all he will ask."

Mr. Weil uttered a low whistle.

"I don't know what the family friends will say of it," he replied, "but
I call it pretty warm stuff. If the list includes many prudes they will
hardly thank the girl for sending such a firebrand into their houses."

"Pshaw!" said Gouger. "The world is getting used to that sort of thing,
and they won't mind it a bit. Besides, they will be so lost in
admiration of their cousin's name on the cover that they will think of
nothing else. What did you make out of her? Is she as innocent as I
predicted?"

Archie poured out a glass of Bass' ale and sipped it slowly.

"Quite," he said, as he put it down on the table. "And she's no dunce,
either." He went on to tell of the trap he had fallen into. "I'm dying
with impatience to get her and Roseleaf together. They'd make an idealic
couple."

Mr. Gouger inquired what he was waiting for.

"Oh, I want to do the thing right," said Weil. "I want to learn her as
thoroughly as I can, before I bring him upon the stage. It will take
three or four evenings more to hear the rest of her novel, and another
to discuss it. I shall get around to him in about a fortnight, at the
rate things are going. He will keep. What do you suppose he is doing
now? Writing poetry! He sent a piece a few days ago to the _Century_,
and they accepted it."

"He will be gray when it appears," said the critic. "It takes a long
time for anything to see the light in that publication."

"But in this case an exception will be made," said Weil. "They have
assured him that it will come out in their very next issue. He will be
so proud to see his name in print that I expect to find difficulty in
holding him back. A poet who appears in the Century has certainly
stepped a little higher on the ladder."

The critic agreed to this, and remarked that such a man as Roseleaf
should give his whole attention to poetry.

"Wait!" cried Archie. "Give him time. See him after he has fallen head
over ears in love with charming Millicent Fern. There is something in
him, I feel sure, and between that dear girl and myself we will bring it
out. By-the-way, there is a character I want you to meet," he added, as
Mr. Walker Boggs came into the room. "You have never had the pleasure, I
think, though you have heard me speak of him."

Mr. Boggs had his attention attracted by a waiter who was sent for t