ch he wrapped about him to his very chin.
She thought the welter-weight was bashful, too. And Irish--that
without a doubt from his bright eyes.

"Your lad?" he asked.

"My--my what?"

She'd hardly been ready for the abrupt question. It confused her.

"Your steady?" This time he nodded toward the door through which Perry
had disappeared.

Jack English was almost thirty--an old man for the prize-ring--and had
a family. Under his bright regard Cecille stammered, and stammered a
lie.

"Yes," she said, not steadily, and very softly indeed. "Yes, my--my
lad."

English nodded sagely.

"Been worried about him lately, I suppose? Bothered by what folks are
saying?"

"I--I haven't heard much," she said, and this was all the truth.

"Don't you!" he advised her. "Don't you listen. And don't you
believe, either."

Still that bright regard. And thereupon Cecille realized that she had
been troubled deeply by one thing which she had heard. Felicity had
passed it on to her.

"They say he cheated," she voiced it, wide-eyed. "That he has
a--yellow streak."

"So's a Bengal tiger." Such succinctness was reassuring. "A whole lot
of 'em. And a man like him don't cheat. You'd oughta know that."
Laconic, but good to listen to. And again:

"Don't you worry. I never saw a man so fast--so quick! That's why I'm
using him. And some day--some day when he's in earnest--he's going to
find out that he can hit. And they? They've said words that they'll
choke then to swallow."

"I hope so." Her voice was meek and small.

"I know so," said English. "Don't you worry. You've picked a game
guy. He can take punishment. You stick!"

"I--I mean to." Her voice was smaller still.

She wanted to cry.

And that night when they were riding home together upon a bus-top she
tried an experiment. How long they had been riding thus she did not
know, but all in a breath she was conscious of the contact of his knee.
That was what she had been avoiding--trying to make herself avoid--ever
since she'd grown aware of her impulse to stay always close. But now
she tried an experiment. She contemplated the contact contentedly for
a time. Then drew away.

Perry had been thinking of Felicity.

"Crowding you?" he asked.

She shook her head. And a minute later she let her knee move back
against him. Proved! Instantly the tiny pulse had picked up its
throbbing in her throat. Yet she let the contact endure. Defiant, she