but he did not
remember ever having heard of a woman in that predicament. Certainly
he had never before met one.

"You mean that you've gone broke, too?"

"Why, certainly," she answered. "The firm I was with first went broke,
and it was a couple of months before I found another position. But
that's over now. What I want to know is what _you're_ going to do
until Saturday."

"Oh, I'll worry along," he answered confidently.

She shook her head.

"Worry won't carry you along."

She hesitated a moment, and then said impulsively:--

"Now, look here--don't get peeved at what I'm going to say, will
you?"

"I don't believe it's possible to get peeved with you," he declared.

She frowned.

"Well, let it go at that. What I want to do is to lend you a couple of
dollars until Saturday. It isn't much, but--"

Don caught his breath. "You--"

She did not give him time to finish. From somewhere she produced a
two-dollar bill and slipped it into his hand.

"Take this and get an egg sandwich right now."

"But look here--"

"Don't talk. Go get a sandwich."

He seemed to have no alternative; but when he came back with it she
had disappeared.

He sat down, but he could not understand why she should have gone like
that. He missed her--missed her more than he would have thought
possible, considering that he had met her only some two hours before.
Without her this place seemed empty and foreign. Without her he felt
uneasy here. He hurried through his sandwich and went out--anxious to
get back to her.

CHAPTER V

BUSINESS

When Don came back to the office he found Miss Winthrop again at her
typewriter, but she did not even glance up as he took his former place
at Powers's desk. If this was not particularly flattering, it at least
gave him the privilege of watching her. But it was rather curious that
he found in this enough to hold his attention for half an hour. It is
doubtful whether he could have watched Frances herself for so long a
time without being bored.

It was the touch of seriousness about the girl's eyes and mouth that
now set him to wondering--a seriousness that he had sometimes noted in
the faces of men who had seen much of life.

Life--that was the keynote. He felt that she had been in touch with
life, and had got the better of it: that there had been drama in her
past, born of contact with men and women. She had been dealing with
such problems as securing food--and his experience of the las