n that _you_ in the plural, for there have
been a good many of you. Some have been successful, some have not; a few
have become famous, just as you are doing. Some of them have been sent
to me; some have come of their own accord. We have been close friends
for a while, and then they have gone on their ways. Every going has left
its scar. I was a woman, sitting still in my place by the fire; they
were marching with the procession, stopping only for a little while and
then going on out of my sight. It has made me feel so futile. But, of
them all, you are the only one who has suggested that the _vivandiere_
may be a useful element on the march. It was all I could do, and I did
it. I am glad if it counted for anything."

"Everything in this world counts but cipher, naught, or zero," Bobby
observed suddenly, as he came strolling into the room at Sally's side.
"You aren't a cipher, Miss Gannion. They're either evanescent or tubby,
according to whether you look at their moral or their physical
proportions. You don't fit either measurement. Therefore you aren't a
cipher. Therefore you count. How do, Arlt? No; don't get up from the
piano. You owe me a sonata, at least, to pay for the stunning headlines
I gave you, yesterday."

"Was that your work, Bobby?" Sally asked, while she shook hands with
Arlt. "I thought it must have come from the bake-shop where they do all
the other pi. Did you see it, Miss Gannion? It reminded me of _A was an
Apple Pie: Arlt's Art Analyzed_. Properly, the second line should have
been: _By Bobby Bunkum_; but I suppose his ideas ran low, when he
reached that point."

"I say, Arlt," Bobby suggested; "why don't you write a series of
articles on How to Get on in the World?"

"They would only take one line: Know Miss Gannion and Miss Van Osdel,"
Arlt retorted, with unwonted quickness.

Bobby shook his head.

"No go, Arlt. I've known them for years, known them intimately; and look
at me! I haven't budged an inch in the upward march. The fact is, I have
just budged downward. My new underling is a boy of seventy and afraid
of a draught, so in common humanity I have had to make over to him my
warm corner at the editorial board, and remove myself to the chilly
places below the salt. To be sure, it gives me extra good purchase on
the devil, as my present desk is just in his pathway to the Chief, and I
can smite him as he goes by."

"Does he turn the other cheek?" Sally queried. "One lump, Miss Gannion.
I