the unfinished
letters.

"I'll call you when I need you," answered Jimmy gruffly. Miss Perkins
left the room in high dudgeon.

"I'LL show them," said Jimmy to himself, determined to carry out his
recent resolve to be firm.

Then his mind wend back to his domestic troubles. "Suppose, that Zoie,
after imposing secrecy upon him, should change that thing called her
'mind' and confide in Aggie about the luncheon?" Jimmy was positively
pale. He decided to telephone to Zoie's house and find out how affairs
were progressing. At the 'phone he hesitated. "If Aggie HAS found out
about the luncheon," he argued, "my 'phoning to Zoie's will increase her
suspicions. If Zoie has told her nothing, she'll wonder why I'm 'phoning
to Zoie's house. There's only one thing to do," he decided. "I must wait
and say nothing. I can tell from Aggie's face when I meet her at dinner
whether Zoie has betrayed me."

Having arrived at this conclusion, Jimmy resolved to get home as early
as possible, and again Miss Perkins was called to his aid.

The flurry with which Jimmy despatched the day's remaining business
confirmed both Miss Perkins and Andrew in their previous opinion that
"the boss" had suddenly "gone off his head." And when he at last left
the office and banged the door behind him there was a general sigh of
relief from his usually tranquil staff.

Instead of walking, as was his custom, Jimmy took a taxi to his home but
alas, to his surprise he found no wife.

"Did Mrs. Jinks leave any word?" he inquired from the butler.

"None at all," answered that unperturbed creature; and Jimmy felt sure
that the attitude of his office antagonists had communicated itself to
his household servants.

When Jimmy's anxious ear at last caught the rustle of a woman's dress in
the hallway, his dinner had been waiting half an hour, and he had
worked himself into a state of fierce antagonism toward everything and
everybody.

At the sound of Aggie's voice however, his heart began to pound with
fear. "Had she found him out for the weak miserable deceiver that he
was? Would she tell him that they were going to separate forever?"

Aggie's first words were reassuring. "Awfully sorry to be so late,
dear," she said.

Jimmy felt her kiss upon his chubby cheek and her dear arms about his
neck. He decided forthwith to tell her everything, and never, never
again to run the risk of deceiving her; but before he could open his
lips, she continued gaily:

"I'v