ordering you round--to have to hear all about Beatrice
Constantine and her wonderful wedding. I'm as good as she is--yet I'll
not be asked, and you will be."

"Of course I am. I'm her oldest playmate," he said, proudly.

Trudy's temper jumped the stockade. "So, you paste jewel, you'll go
mincing into church and see her married and dance with everyone
afterward; and I'll sit in the office licking postage stamps while you
kiss the bride! I'm better looking than she is; and if you are good
enough to go to that wedding so am I!"

"Why, Trudy," he began, in a bewildered fashion, "don't make a
scene."

"No use making a scene in a fifty-cent cafe," she told him, bitterly,
"but I'm plenty good looking enough to have a real man buy me a real
dinner with a taxi and wine and violets as extras. Don't think you are
doing me a big favour by being engaged to me."

"Oh, you're a great little girl," he said, nervously; "and it's all
going to come out right. It does rile me to think of your working for
Steve. Never mind, my ship will come in and then we'll show them
all."

"I'm twenty-three and you're twenty-six, and my eyes ache when I work
steadily. I'll have to wear glasses in another year--but I'll wash
clothes before I'll do it!"

"When it gets that bad we'll be married," he said, seriously.

The humour passed over Trudy's head. "Married on what?" She was her
prettiest when angry and she stirred in Gaylord's one-cylinder brain a
resolve to play fairy-godfather husband and somehow deliver a fortune
at her feet.

"I can't live at your club," she continued; "and your sister is
jealous of her husband and wouldn't want me round. We couldn't live
with the Faithfuls; Mary's a nice girl but I can't go their quiet
ways. I only stay because it's cheap. I owe more than two hundred
dollars right now."

Gaylord was sympathetic. "I owe more than that," he admitted; "but I'm
going to have some concerts and there'll be good horse races
soon--sure things, you know. You'll see, little girl. What would you
say if I showed you a real bank account?"

"I wouldn't waste time talking. I'd marry you." Her good humour was
returning. "Honest, Gay, do you think you might draw down some kale?"

Like all her kind she had an absurd trust in any one who was paying
her attention. With a different type of man Trudy would have been
beaten, courageously had the gentleman arrested, and then interfered
when the judge was directing him to the penitentiary