e plan of this sudden impromptu
dinner. What would she say to him? Did she love him? Frankly she did
not--yet. Could she ever love him? The answer to that was in the
future. Ought a girl to marry a man whom she knew in her heart she did
not love? He was rich, the marriage was in every way desirable. She
would have every comfort, but could real happiness come of a marriage
which on both sides would be, after all, only a mockery, a hollow
sham?

Jimmie, impatient, repeated his question.

"Will you kindly tell us what kind of a man you want?"

Virginia looked up. Calmly she answered:

"I--I want a man I can love."

The clerk gave a low whistle. Sarcastically he said:

"If you can't love a man as rich as Mr. Stafford, take my advice and
go see a heart specialist."

"A girl can't love a man just because she wants to," replied Virginia
with dignity. "Love doesn't go where it's sent; it goes where it
pleases."

"That's right," interrupted Fanny. Turning to her fiance she said:
"You don't suppose I loved a fourteen-dollar-a-week shipping clerk
because I wanted to, do you?"

Jimmie squirmed in his chair.

"What?" he exclaimed.

Quickly Fanny mended matters. With a conciliatory smile she added:

"I loved him just because I had to."

Immediately placated, the young man rose and, approaching his fiancee
in a manner intended to suggest the tenderest sentiment, he stuttered:

"Same here. The first time I ever set eyes on you, Fanny, something
inside o' me said: 'Me for her!'"

The girl laughed. Placing her hand over her heart, she said mockingly:

"And something here said, 'Him for me!'"

He stooped and kissed her and, taking her hand, they sat side by side
on the sofa together in the manner of all conventional lovers.
Virginia, who had watched them with amusement, shook her head. Sadly
she said:

"My heart never said anything like _that_ to _me_."

"Then perhaps it won't be that way with you," said Jimmie. "Perhaps
you'll learn to care for him by degrees like you would--say, for Mr.
Stafford."

"Don't talk nonsense," cried Virginia.

"He's interested in you, and if you play your cards right--"

"I'm not _going_ to play any cards."

"Let me tell you one thing," he said, rising and going to the table,
"a chance like this don't come to one girl in a million."

"Please!--" exclaimed Virginia, putting up her hand to stop his
talk.

But Jimmie was not so easily suppressed. Earnestly he went on:

"It's a