ng, she's my sister and nobody--not even
you--is going to do anything to hurt her feelings and get away with it
without a fight from me."

Jimmie rose and resumed his nervous pacing of the floor. Hastily he
said:

"I ain't going to do anything to hurt her feelings! But I must say
it's pretty tough on a fellow to have all his good ideas spoiled! Take
the one I had about the auto. I could have sold it for fifteen hundred
dollars, but Virginia wouldn't let me and made me send it back. There
was a great idea gone wrong--" He was silent for a few moments and
then suddenly he burst out: "I've got another one."

[Illustration: "I'VE GOT ANOTHER IDEA," SAID JIMMIE. PAGE 305]

"What--another idea?" exclaimed his wife sarcastically.

"Yes," he replied eagerly, "and even you will think this one all
right."

"What is it?"

He looked round as if to make sure no one was listening. Then, in a
tragic whisper, he said:

"We must bring Virginia and Stafford together again."

"Jimmie!" exclaimed his wife, looking at him in amazement.

"You know she's still in love with him, don't you?" he went on calmly.

"Yes."

"And he's just crazy over her. He 'phoned me again to-day asking about
her."

"Well--what of it?"

A crafty expression came into her husband's face. He looked wise for a
moment; then he said solemnly:

"To make two people who are in love forget and forgive, all you have
to do is to get them into each others' arms. That's the way it would
be with them! Only stubbornness keeps them apart now--just
stubbornness!"

"Yes--that's true," admitted Fanny.

"Well," he said significantly, "it's very simple--we must get them
into each others' arms."

"How?" she demanded.

"Ah," he smiled, "that's where my idea comes in."

Fanny looked at him curiously. It was the first time she had ever
heard her husband say anything sensible.

"Go on--tell me," she said eagerly.

"If she sent for him," he went on, "he'd break all speed laws getting
up here, and if he came for her of his own accord--if she thought he
did that she'd be in his arms so quick that she'd make a bounding
antelope look like a plumber's assistant going back for his tools!"

Fanny looked puzzled. She did not quite understand his meaning.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Her husband hesitated for a moment as if not daring to suggest what
was on his mind; then suddenly he blurted out:

"Suppose I 'phoned him--right now--that she had sent for him?"