h and
vulgar and whose antecedents were obviously so plebeian. Of Irish
parentage, but American born, James Gillie was a product of the newest
America, the typical _gamin_ of New York's streets, fresh and
slangy in speech, keen to the main chance, not over scrupulous, shrewd
and calculating. Fair and slight in build, he was about twenty-six
years old and his upper lip was adorned with a few thinly scattered
hairs, which he proudly termed a moustache. Otherwise he was
unintelligent and ordinary looking, one of the many thousands of New
York young men who, graduates of the slums, have been left to shift
for themselves, and whose chief intellectual pastime has been standing
on street corners reading baseball returns. Not only had he no
education, but he was rather proud of the fact, affecting to despise
bookish people as prigs and "high-brows." Incompetent and lazy,
without any real ability, he worked only because he had to, and his
standing grievance was that he was misunderstood, unappreciated and
underpaid. The one good side to his nature, and the one which,
perhaps, appealed most to Fanny, was the unconscious possession of a
rich fund of humor. He was funny without intending to be, and this not
only made him a diverting companion but ensured him a welcome
everywhere. With the straightest of faces, he would say funny things
in so ludicrous a manner that a roomful of people would go into
convulsions. He laughed with them, not realizing they were laughing at
him, but ever preening himself on being a very witty and clever person
indeed. His greatest fault was inordinate vanity. He had the highest
opinion of his own capacity, and he could never understand why
capitalists generally did not tumble over each other to secure his
services. At the present time he was earning the magnificent salary of
ten dollars a week as shipping clerk, but this, he explained, was only
a nominal stipend, as a starter. Before very long he would be
president of the company. His hobby was inventing things. So far he
had not made enough by his brain to purchase a collar button, but
ideas were coming thick and fast, and he was convinced that the day
was not far distant when he would make a great fortune. That is why,
all things considered, he believed himself, despite his obscure origin
and lack of education, a desirable match for the proudest girl in the
land.

"Fanny! Where's my tape measure? I can't find my tape measure."

Once more Mrs. Blaine