greener, and the
girls are prettier, and the steaks are thicker, and the buildings are
higher, and the streets are wider, and the air is finer, than the sky, or
the grass, or the girls, or the steaks, or the air of any place else in
the world. Ain't they?"

"Oh, now," protested Sam, "quit kiddin' me! You'd be lonesome for the
little old town, too, if you'd been born and dragged up in it, and hadn't
seen it for four months."

"New to the road, aren't you?" asked Pearlie.

Sam blushed a little. "How did you know?"

"Well, you generally can tell. They don't know what to do with
themselves evenings, and they look rebellious when they go into the
dining-room. The old-timers just look resigned."

"You've picked up a thing or two around here, haven't you? I wonder if
the time will ever come when I'll look resigned to a hotel dinner, after
four months of 'em. Why, girl, I've got so I just eat the things that
are covered up--like baked potatoes in the shell, and soft boiled eggs,
and baked apples, and oranges that I can peel, and nuts."

"Why, you poor kid," breathed Pearlie, her pale eyes fixed on him in
motherly pity. "You oughtn't to do that. You'll get so thin your girl
won't know you."

Sam looked up quickly. "How in thunderation did you know----?"

Pearlie was pinning on her hat, and she spoke succinctly, her hatpins
between her teeth: "You've been here two days now, and I notice you
dictate all your letters except the longest one, and you write that one
off in a corner of the writing-room all by yourself, with your cigar just
glowing like a live coal, and you squint up through the smoke, and grin
to yourself."

"Say, would you mind if I walked home with you?" asked Sam.

If Pearlie was surprised, she was woman enough not to show it. She
picked up her gloves and hand bag, locked her drawer with a click, and
smiled her acquiescence. And when Pearlie smiled she was awful.

It was a glorious evening in the early summer, moonless, velvety, and
warm. As they strolled homeward, Sam told her all about the Girl, as is
the way of traveling men the world over. He told her about the tiny
apartment they had taken, and how he would be on the road only a couple
of years more, as this was just a try-out that the firm always insisted
on. And they stopped under an arc light while Sam showed her the picture
in his watch, as is also the way of traveling men since time immemorial.

Pearlie made an excellent list