ing if you don't have a good time? I'll have it if I have to steal
it. Oh, you needn't look so horrified. Steve O'Valley almost stole his
fortune just because he had to be a rich man before Constantine would
let him marry his daughter. Anyway, I'd rather have a good time for a
few years and then die than to live to be a hundred and never have an
honest-to-goodness party. Wouldn't you?"

"You're foolish to-day. If you only wouldn't wear such low-cut waists
and talk to the men! Mr. O'Valley has noticed it."

"I can get another job and another boarding house," Trudy began,
defiantly.

"You wouldn't last out at either. You need this sort of a place and
our sort of house, you ridiculous little thing. Besides, you have
Gaylord at your beck and call"--Trudy blushed--"and you seem to
manage to have a pretty good time when all is said and done. I do
feel responsible for you because at twenty-three you are more
scatterbrained than----"

"Finish it--than you were at thirteen! Well, what of it? I'm out for a
good time and you are always talking about the right time, I suppose.
I'll take your lecture without weeping and promise to reform. But
don't be surprised at anything I may do regarding tra-la-la-la-la."
She burst into the wedding march again and vanished, Mary shaking her
head as she prepared to sign off some letters.

Steve O'Valley opened the door connecting their offices, displaying a
face as happy as a schoolboy's on a Christmas holiday. "Miss
Constantine is downstairs, I'm going to escort her up," he announced,
shutting the door as abruptly as he had opened it.

Presently there came into Steve's office someone who was saying in a
light, gay voice: "Perfectly awful old place, Stevuns--as bad as
papa's. I hate business offices; make my head ache. It was Red Cross
to-day, and after that I had to rush to cooking school----"

Steve answered in rapt fashion: "I'll have to talk to Miss Faithful
for half a jiffy and then I'm free for the rest of the day----"
opening the door of Mary's office and beckoning to her.

Coming into his office Mary nodded pleasantly at the Gorgeous Girl,
who nodded pleasantly in return and settled herself in an easy-chair
while Steve rehearsed the things to be attended to the following day
since he was not to be at the office.

"I'm getting Miss Faithful ready to run the shop single-handed," he
explained, telling Mary details which she already knew better than he
but to which she listened pat