he?"

"That," says Mr. Robert, "is something I mean to find out."

And say, if you ever see that jaw of Mr. Robert's, you'll know he did.
And she wa'n't an Astor or a Gould in disguise. She was just plain Miss
Morgan, that had come on with her mother from Kansas City, or Omaha, or
somewhere out there; put in six or eight months in a swell dressmaker's
shop; learned how to make herself the kind of clothes that look like
ready money; shuffled off her corn-belt accent; and then broke into the
typewritin' game while she waited for somethin' better to turn up.

"And Benny was it, wa'n't he?" says I to Mr. Robert.

"With your help, Torchy," says he, "it appears that he was."

"Well," says I, "he needed the push, all right, didn't he!"

Fired? Me? Ah, quit your kiddin'! Why, they're tickled to death now, all
of 'em. They're beginnin' to find out that Mildred's quite a girl, even
if she ain't got a lot of fat-wad folks back of her.

And say, w'atcher think! Benny comes around here the other day wearin' a
broad grin, lugs me out to his tailor's to have me taped for a whole
outfit of glad rags, and says I've got to be one of the ushers at the
weddin'. Wouldn't that sting you?

CHAPTER VI

SHUNTING BROTHER BILL

Don't talk to me about weddin's! Sure, I've been mixed up in one. Maybe
there was orange blossoms and so on; but all that's handed me is a bunch
of lemon buds. Not that I'm carryin' any grouch. I might have known
better'n to butt into any such doin's. Long as I stick to bein' head
office boy, I knows who's what, and what's which, and anyone that thinks
they can give me the double cross is welcome to a try; but when it comes
to sittin' in at a wilt-thou fest I'm a reg'lar Cousin Zeke from the
red-mitten belt.

Maybe I wouldn't have done so bad, though, if it hadn't been for Aunt
Laura. And say, mark it up on the bulletin right here, she ain't my
aunt! She's Benny's. I was tellin' you how I loaded Mildred, our lady
typewriter that was, into Mr. Robert's car alongside of Bashful Benny,
and what came of it, wa'n't I! And how Benny's so grateful that he says
I've got to be one of the ushers?

Well, it was all goin' lovely, and the gen'ral office force has chipped
in and bought 'em a swell weddin' present, and Benny's tailor has built
me a pair of striped pants and a John Drew coat, and Mr. Mallory's been
coachin' me how to act when I chase the folks into their seats, and
Piddie's been loadin' me up with p