?" exclaimed Virginia indignantly.

"Yes--I shouldn't have dropped it if you hadn't shouted at me."

Picking up the pieces, he tried to fit them together.

Fanny, frightened out of her wits, was speechless.

"I think we'd better go home!" she gasped.

Virginia alone remained cool.

"Don't be foolish," she said.

"Wait a bit! Wait a bit!" cried Jimmie; picking up the pieces and
putting them together. "Look here. How's that for luck? They fit
perfectly. No one will know the difference." Replacing the mended vase
where he had found it, he added: "We'll leave it just like that and
he'll think the Jap did it."

"Fine!" cried Fanny thoughtlessly, grasping at any excuse which
promised to exonerate them.

But Virginia would not permit it.

"We'll do nothing of the kind," she exclaimed indignantly.

"If we don't, he'll think we've done it," said Jimmie apprehensively.

The girl gave him a look that made him quail.

"He's not only got to think it," she said severely--"he has got to
know it."

"But if he does--"

As he spoke the front door bell rang in the outer hall. Quickly he
added: "I'll bet that's him! Shall you tell him?"

"I certainly shall if you don't," replied Virginia firmly.

Oku passed hurriedly through the room on his way to open the front
door.

"Excuse, please, excuse--"

Nervous at meeting her host, Fanny began to mop her face desperately.

"I'm so nervous!" she said. "Do I shake hands with him when I'm
introduced or just say 'pleased to meet you?'"

Virginia laughed heartily.

"Behave as you would with anyone else," she said.

"How do you feel, Jimmie?" inquired Fanny.

There was an expression of comical consternation on the shipping
clerk's face as he pointed to the broken vase.

"I'm not worrying about meeting him," he said ruefully. "I'm worrying
about that--"

The next instant the door leading to the hall opened and Robert
Stafford entered.

CHAPTER VIII

Their host advanced, hand extended, his frank, boyish face lit up with
a cordial smile.

It was hard to realize that this youthful looking man with black hair
not yet tinged by a suspicion of gray, and whose erect, athletic
figure suggested the football field rather than the counting room, was
one of the most influential railroad men in the country, the master of
a large fortune amassed by his own painstaking efforts, his own
energy, initiative and ability.

Attired himself in a plain business suit, a quick gl