d n't like."

"You've been throwing out hints," McLaughlin reiterated, "and bothering
me so much lately about Skinner, I wish to goodness I _had_ raised his
salary."

"I know," Perkins persisted, "but see what our Skinner's habits have
been in the past--penurious. Why the sudden change? You know just as
well as I do that a clerk can't travel around with the rich."

"Why not? The man's been saving money for years--got a bank account.
All these little things we've noticed you could cover with a few
hundred dollars. Come, Perk, out with it! Just what do you mean?"

"It's only a suggestion, Mac, not even a hint--but Pullman cars are
great hot-beds for hatching all kinds of financial schemes. That's
where you get your Wall Street tips--that's where they grow."

McLaughlin looked serious. He drummed on his desk with the
paper-cutter and waited.

"Tips are very good when they go right," Perkins went on, "but when
they go wrong--" He hesitated.

"I get you. They're dangerous to a man who is employed in a fiduciary
capacity," said McLaughlin very quietly.

"I believe as you do," urged Perkins, "that Skinner is the most honest
and loyal man in America--but other honest and loyal men--well, darn
it, they're all human."

"Well?" McLaughlin observed, and waited.

"It's a part of wisdom to be cautious. It's just as much for his good
as it is for ours. An ounce of prevention, you know. Besides, it's
_our_ money he's handling."

"You may be right," said McLaughlin, rising. "But go slow--wait a
little. I'll keep my eye on the Meadeville end of it for a while."

Skinner not only "listened" himself into the affections of Stephen
Colby, but into the affections of other members of the "gold-bug" set
as well. He won his way more with his ears than with his tongue. He'd
only been a member of the Pullman contingent a fortnight when he and
Honey were invited to dine with the Howard Hemingways. There they met
all the vicarious members of the Pullman Club--the wives.

The Hemingway dinner was an open sesame to the Skinners. The ladies of
the "walled-in" element began to take Honey up. They called on her.
She was made a member of the bridge club.

It cost Honey something to learn the game,--some small money
losses,--but these were never charged to the dress-suit account, for a
very obvious reason.

So popular did the Skinners become that it was seldom they dined at
home. Skinner, methodical man that he was, p