count of me too. I'm sorry." There was a
little break in her voice. "I s'pose you hate me for--for bein' the
way I am. I know I hate myself." She choked on the food she was
eating.

Johnnie, much distressed, put down the coffee-pot and fluttered near.
"Don't you take on, ma'am. I wisht I could tell you how pleased we-all
are to he'p you. I hope you'll stay with us right along. I sure do.
You'd be right welcome," he concluded bashfully.

"I've got no place to go, except back home--and I've got no folks there
but a second cousin. She doesn't want me. I don't know what to do.
If I had a woman friend--some one to tell me what was best--"

Johnnie slapped his hand on his knee, struck by a sudden inspiration.
"Say! Y'betcha, by jollies, I've got 'er--the very one! You're
damn--you're sure whistlin'. We got a lady friend, Clay and me, the
finest little pilgrim in New York. She's sure there when the gong
strikes. You'd love her. I'll fix it for you--right away. I got to
go to her house this afternoon an' do some chores. I'll bet she comes
right over to see you."

Kitty was doubtful. She did not want to take any strange young women
into her confidence until she had seen them. More than one good
Pharisee had burned her face with a look of scornful contempt in the
past weeks.

"Maybe we better wait and speak to Mr. Lindsay about it," she said.

"No, ma'am, you don't know Miss Beatrice. She's the best friend." He
passed her the eggs and a confidence at the same time. "Why, I
shouldn't wonder but what she and Clay might get married one o' these
days. He thinks a lot of her."

"Oh." Kitty knew just a little more of human nature than the puncher.
"Then I wouldn't tell her about me if I was you. She wouldn't like my
bein' here."

"Sho! You don't know Miss Beatrice. She grades 'way up. I'll bet she
likes you fine."

When Johnnie left to go to work that afternoon he took with him a
resolution to lay the whole case before Beatrice Whitford. She would
fix things all right. No need for anybody to worry after she took a
hand and began to run things. If there was one person on earth Johnnie
could bank on without fail it was his little boss.

CHAPTER XVIII

BEATRICE GIVES AN OPTION

It was not until Johnnie had laid the case before Miss Whitford and
restated it under the impression that she could not have understood
that his confidence ebbed. Even then he felt that he must have bungled
it