to have--that work?"

"Why, of course, I have to have it!" Billy was bewildered, but
entirely positive. "That's _my_ work--the thing I'm made to do. _I_
couldn't earn my salt selling apartment houses."

"Oh, no, no," the girl hurriedly agreed.

A long, long silence followed, a silence in which he was entirely
oblivious to her imaginings. The moonlight lay heavy as dreams about
them; her thoughts went darting to and fro like fluttering
swallows.... She felt herself a stranger to herself.... She looked
up at him with a sudden deer-like lift of her head, and then looked
swiftly away.

"Don't go," she said in a quick, low voice. "Don't go--yet. Even
things that look impossible--can be made to come right."

He understood that she was pleading with him, partly for the sake of
her own chance with Falconer, but the sympathy flicked him on the
raw. He was sorry for her, sorry for the queer, strained look in her
face, sorry for the voice so full of feeling, but he couldn't do
anything to help her.

In silence he shook his head and was astounded at the look of sudden
proud anger she darted at him.

"You're a mighty real friend to take such an interest in my luck,"
he said quickly, with warm liking in his voice, "and I only wish you
could play fairy godmother and give me my wish--but you can't, Lady
Claire, and apparently _she_ won't, and that is the end of the
matter. I have to take off my hat to the Better Man."

Lady Claire did not gasp or stammer or question. She did none of the
dismayedly enlightening things into which a lesser poise might have
tottered. After an inconsiderable moment of silence she merely
uttered her familiar, "Oh!" and uttered it in a voice in which so
many things were blended that their elements could hardly be
perceived.

She added hurriedly, "I'm sorry if I've seemed to--to intrude into
your affairs."

"My affairs are on my sleeve," answered Billy and wondered at the
quick look she gave him.

"Oh, no--not at all," she answered a little breathlessly. "I'm sure
they haven't seemed so to me--but then I'm stupid." She stopped for
a moment of hot wonder at that stupidity. She had not believed Miss
Falconer--had thought her prejudiced ... maneuvering.... Like
lightning she reviewed the baffling interchange of sentences, then
glanced up at Billy's silent absorption. She felt queerly grateful
for his innocent density. "And perhaps _she's_ stupid, too," she
told him. "You'd better make sure. You'd