y took it
off," said Rita Tevis, resentfully. "I had a perfectly good part which
nobody crabbed because nobody wanted it, which suited me beautifully
because I hate to have anything that others want. Now there's nothing
doing in the millinery line and I'm ready for suggestions."

"Dinner with me," said Ogilvy, fondly. But she turned up her dainty
nose:

"Have _you_ anything more interesting to offer, Mr. Annan?"

"Only my heart, hand, and Ogilvy's fortune," said Annan, regretfully.
"But I believe Archie Allaire was looking for a model of your type--"

"I don't want to pose for Mr. Allaire," said the girl, pouting and
twirling the handle of her parasol.

But neither Annan nor Ogilvy could use her then; and Neville had just
finished a solid week of her.

"What I'll do," she said with decision, "will be to telephone John
Burleson. I never knew him to fail a girl in search of an engagement."

"Isn't he a dear," said Valerie, smiling. "I adore him."

She sat at the piano, running her fingers lightly over the keyboard,
listening to what was being said, watching with happy interest
everything that was going on around her, and casting an occasional
glance over her shoulder and upward to where Neville stood at work.

"John Burleson," observed Rita, looking fixedly at Ogilvy, "is easily
the nicest man I know."

"Help!" said Ogilvy, feebly.

Valerie glanced across the top of the piano, laughing, while her hands
passed idly here and there over the keys:

"Sam _can_ be very nice, Rita; but you've got to make him," she said.

"Did you ever know a really interesting man who didn't require
watching?" inquired Annan, mildly.

Rita surveyed him with disdain: "Plenty."

"Don't believe it. No girl has any very enthusiastic use for a man in
whom she has perfect confidence."

"Here's another profound observation," added Ogilvy; "when a woman loses
confidence in a man she finds a brand-new interest in him. But when a
man once really loses confidence in a woman, he never regains it, and
it's the beginning of the end. What do you think about that, Miss West?"

Valerie, still smiling, struck a light chord or two, considering:

"I don't know how it would be," she said, "to lose confidence in a man
you really care much about. I should think it would break a girl's
heart."

"It doesn't," said Rita, with supreme contempt. "You become accustomed
to it."

Valerie leaned forward against the keyboard, laughing:

"Oh, Rita!" sh