u're my age--"

"I AM your age."

"So you are! I forgot that. Well, now, approaching the matter from
another angle, let us suppose, old son, that Miss What's-Her-Name--the
party of the second part--"

"Stop it!" said Bill suddenly. "Here comes Reggie!"

"Eh?"

"Here comes Reggie van Tuyl. I don't want him to hear us talking about
the darned thing."

Archie looked over his shoulder and perceived that it was indeed so.
Reggie was threading his way among the tables.

"Well, HE looks pleased with things, anyway," said Bill, enviously.
"Glad somebody's happy."

He was right. Reggie van Tuyl's usual mode of progress through a
restaurant was a somnolent slouch. Now he was positively bounding along.
Furthermore, the usual expression on Reggie's face was a sleepy sadness.
Now he smiled brightly and with animation. He curveted towards their
table, beaming and erect, his head up, his gaze level, and his chest
expanded, for all the world as if he had been reading the hints in "The
Personality That Wins."

Archie was puzzled. Something had plainly happened to Reggie. But what?
It was idle to suppose that somebody had left him money, for he had been
left practically all the money there was a matter of ten years before.

"Hallo, old bean," he said, as the new-comer, radiating good will and
bonhomie, arrived at the table and hung over it like a noon-day sun.
"We've finished. But rally round and we'll watch you eat. Dashed
interesting, watching old Reggie eat. Why go to the Zoo?"

Reggie shook his head.

"Sorry, old man. Can't. Just on my way to the Ritz. Stepped in because
I thought you might be here. I wanted you to be the first to hear the
news."

"News?"

"I'm the happiest man alive!"

"You look it, darn you!" growled Bill, on whose mood of grey gloom this
human sunbeam was jarring heavily.

"I'm engaged to be married!"

"Congratulations, old egg!" Archie shook his hand cordially. "Dash it,
don't you know, as an old married man I like to see you young fellows
settling down."

"I don't know how to thank you enough, Archie, old man," said Reggie,
fervently.

"Thank me?"

"It was through you that I met her. Don't you remember the girl you sent
to me? You wanted me to get her a small part--"

He stopped, puzzled. Archie had uttered a sound that was half gasp and
half gurgle, but it was swallowed up in the extraordinary noise from the
other side of the table. Bill Brewster was leaning forward with bulging
e