ollege life--and as many more in similar vein as Miss
Rossmore could write. This success had been followed by other
acceptances and other commissions, until at the present time she
was a well-known writer for the leading publications. Her great
ambition had been to write a book, and "The American Octopus,"
published under an assumed name, was the result.

The cab stopped suddenly in front of beautiful gilded gates. It
was the Luxembourg, and through the tall railings they caught a
glimpse of well-kept lawns, splashing fountains and richly dressed
children playing. From the distance came the stirring strains of a
brass band.

The coachman drove up to the curb and Jefferson jumped down,
assisting Shirley to alight. In spite of Shirley's protest
Jefferson insisted on paying.

"_Combien?_" he asked the _cocher_.

The jehu, a surly, thick-set man with a red face and small,
cunning eyes like a ferret, had already sized up his fares for two
_sacre_ foreigners whom it would be flying in the face of
Providence not to cheat, so with unblushing effrontery he
answered:

"_Dix francs, Monsieur!_" And he held up ten fingers by way of
illustration.

Jefferson was about to hand up a ten-franc piece when Shirley
indignantly interfered. She would not submit to such an
imposition. There was a regular tariff and she would pay that and
nothing more. So, in better French than was at Jefferson's
command, she exclaimed:

"Ten francs? _Pourquoi dix francs?_ I took your cab by the hour.
It is exactly two hours. That makes four francs." Then to
Jefferson she added: "Give him a franc for a _pourboire_--that
makes five francs altogether."

Jefferson, obedient to her superior wisdom, held out a five-franc
piece, but the driver shrugged his shoulders disdainfully. He saw
that the moment had come to bluster so he descended from his box
fully prepared to carry out his bluff. He started in to abuse the
two Americans whom in his ignorance he took for English.

"Ah, you _sale Anglais_! You come to France to cheat the poor
Frenchman. You make me work all afternoon and then pay me nothing.
Not with this coco! I know my rights and I'll get them, too."

All this was hurled at them in a patois French, almost
unintelligible to Shirley, and wholly so to Jefferson. All he knew
was that the fellow's attitude was becoming unbearably insolent
and he stepped forward with a gleam in his eye that might have
startled the man had he not been so busy shaki