id:

"Don't worry, Jimmie, your chance will come just as Mr. Stafford's
did."

"Fine chance I've got," he growled; "third assistant shipping clerk in
a wholesale grocery. Why, the manager of the department only gets
thirty and he's been with the house twenty-six years."

"That's a sweet outlook for me, I must say," cried Fanny in dismay.
"If it takes a man twenty-six years to work up to thirty, I suppose
you'll be getting eighteen eleven years from the third of next
January."

Jimmie looked closely at both girls. He was not quite sure if they
were making fun of him. Apparently satisfied that, on the contrary,
they were in full sympathy with his troubles, he said:

"I'm doing my best and no fellow can do more! That's what makes me so
sore, I tell you. Here I am slaving away for fourteen a week and he
spends three hundred just for his rooms. I wonder how many rooms he
gets for that?"

"I think it's twelve and four baths," said Fanny.

"Four baths!" he gasped. "What in God's name can a bachelor do with
four baths?"

"Is there any reason he shouldn't have them if he can pay for them?"
demanded Fanny quietly.

"But what good are they to him," insisted her fiance. "No matter how
much money he has, he can't be in more than one tub at a time. I
suppose he uses 'em Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday--and keeps the favorite for the special splash on Sunday."

Virginia looked at him scornfully.

"Do you realize," she exclaimed, "that Mr. Stafford has servants and
that he has friends come to stay with him occasionally?"

Abashed, the young man put his hands in his pockets and began to
whistle. He stood in considerable awe of Virginia.

"Oh, I hadn't thought o' that," he said mildly.

Flushing with vexation at his making such remarks, Fanny said to him
in a quick undertone:

"Take my advice and do think--once in a while. And get rid of that
temper, too. For the first time in our lives we're invited to dine
with a rich man and I, for one, want to enjoy it."

Jimmie opened his mouth as if to make some retort, when suddenly Oku
re-appeared carrying a tray in which was a tempting spread of
cocktails, cigarettes and cigars.

CHAPTER VII

While the butler was serving the cocktails, Virginia roamed through
the splendid suite of rooms, taking keen delight in examining at
closer range one and all of the art treasures they contained. She went
into silent ecstasies before a Da Vinci, a Rembr