its to devise
some pretext which would excuse an invasion of the private car.

II

THE "PERSONALLY CONDUCTED"

In view of the certain proximity of Miss Gertrude Vennor, Brockway
wanted nothing so much as a quiet opportunity to think his mind clear in
the matter of his love-affair, but time and place were both denied him.
Lying in wait for him at the very door of the Tadmor was a thin old
gentleman, with hock-bottle shoulders and penthoused eyes. His voice was
high-pitched and rasping; and his speech was petulance grown old and
unreasoning.

"Mr. ah--Brockway, I protest! Do you consider it fair to us, your
patrons, to absent yourself for the ah--better part of the morning? Here
I've been waiting for you more than an hour, sir, and----"

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jordan; I'm sorry," Brockway cut in. "What can I
do for you?"

"You can attend to your ah--business a little closer, for one thing, Mr.
ah--Brockway," quavered the aggrieved one, taking a yard-long coupon
ticket from his breast-pocket; "and for another, you can give me the
sixty days going limit on this ticket that I ah--stipulated for when I
bought it, sir."

Brockway glanced at the ticket and called attention to the conditions in
the contract. "The going limit of thirty days is plainly stated here,
Mr. Jordan. Didn't you read the contract before signing it?"

"Don't make any difference, sir; I ah--stipulated for sixty days, and I
require you to make the stipulation ah--good, sir."

"But, my dear sir, I can't. No representative of any one of the lines
interested is authorized to change these conditions."

"Very well, sir; v-e-r-y well." The irascible one folded the ticket with
tremulous fingers and sought to replace it in his pocket-book. "I shall
know what road to ah--patronize next time, and it won't be yours, Mr.
ah--Brockway; you may depend upon that, sir."

The passenger agent's forte was placability. "Don't worry about your
ticket, Mr. Jordan," he said. "We'll take good care of you, and if you
should happen to be more than thirty days in reaching Los Angeles----"

"Thirty days!" gasped the objector. "Great ah--heavens, sir, you told us
you could put us there in ah--four days and a half!"

"So I did, and so we shall, barring the stop-overs the party may wish to
make; but in that case I don't see why you should require a sixty-day
limit," said Brockway, with an affable smile.

By this time quite a little group had gathered around them,