in terror lest her friend should
scent a romance, and for this reason she had never spoken of the symptoms
Ditmar had betrayed. She attempted to convey to Eda the doubtful taste of
staring point-blank at the house of one's employer, especially when he
might be concealed behind a curtain.

"You see," she added, "Miss Ottway's recommended me for her place--she's
going away."

"Janet!" cried Eda. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well," said Janet guiltily, "it's only a trial. I don't know whether
he'll keep me or not."

"Of course he'll keep you," said Eda, warmly. "If that isn't just like
you, not saying a word about it. Gee, if I'd had a raise like that I just
couldn't wait to tell you. But then, I'm not smart like you."

"Don't be silly," said Janet, out of humour with herself, and annoyed
because she could not then appreciate Eda's generosity.

"We've just got to celebrate!" declared Eda, who had the gift, which
Janet lacked, of taking her joys vicariously; and her romantic and
somewhat medieval proclivities would permit no such momentous occasion to
pass without an appropriate festal symbol. "We'll have a spree on
Saturday--the circus is coming then."

"It'll be my spree," insisted Janet, her heart warming. "I've got the
raise...."

On Saturday, accordingly, they met at Grady's for lunch, Eda attired in
her best blouse of pale blue, and when they emerged from the restaurant,
despite the torrid heat, she beheld Faber Street as in holiday garb as
they made their way to the cool recesses of Winterhalter's to complete
the feast. That glorified drug-store with the five bays included in its
manifold functions a department rivalling Delmonico's, with electric fans
and marble-topped tables and white-clad waiters who took one's order and
filled it at the soda fountain. It mattered little to Eda that the young
man awaiting their commands had pimples and long hair and grinned
affectionately as he greeted them.

"Hello, girls!" he said. "What strikes you to-day?"

"Me for a raspberry nut sundae," announced Eda, and Janet, being unable
to imagine any more delectable confection, assented. The penetrating
odour peculiar to drugstores, dominated by menthol and some unnamable but
ancient remedy for catarrh, was powerless to interfere with their
enjoyment.

The circus began at two. Rather than cling to the straps of a crowded car
they chose to walk, following the familiar route of the trolley past the
car barns and the base-ba