muscles of Mr. Gillie's nostrils contracted and for a moment it
looked as if his slight frame were again about to be shaken
convulsively by a mighty sneeze, but the spasm passed. He merely
coughed loudly to clear his throat. Then, glancing round the room in
which he was sitting, he said:

"Oh, I guess we'll be able to put on as good a front as this, all
right, all right." Tilting his chair back until it seemed physically
impossible that he could maintain his balance, he went on between
puffs of his cigar:

"You see, m'm, I'm not the kind of man that's satisfied to go on
working all his life for only just enough to keep body and soul
together. That's all right maybe for pikers--poor devils that have no
spunk--but not for 'yours truly.' I'm a pusher, a climber, I am, and,
what's more, I'm a man with ideas. No one can keep me down in the
world. One of these days I'll be driving my own automobile and Fanny
will be riding in it with me. It's no 'guff' I'm giving you. I'm the
real 'goods.'"

"You are a shipping clerk, I believe," said Mrs. Blaine when she could
get in a word sideways.

"Yes, m'm," he snapped, "a shipping clerk--what of it?"

"Is that a very--lucrative position?"

He laughed derisively as if it was absurd to imagine he was going to
remain a shipping clerk all his life.

"Oh, I'm only a clerk now, but I'll be boss some day--see if I don't."

"Might I ask what your present income is?" inquired the widow blandly.

For the first time Mr. Gillie seemed at a loss for an answer.
Awkwardly shifting his cigar to the other corner of his mouth, he
stammered:

"I'm not getting much now--ten a week--that's all." Hastily he
continued: "But it won't be for long. The big men down town know
me--they know what I'm worth to them. They're just watching me. Any
day they may make me an offer that would land me in Easy Street.
Besides, sooner or later I'll astonish people with one of my
inventions. I'm full of new ideas. Some of them are bound to make
money. It's a cinch!"

How long he would have continued in this strain there is no telling,
for, although not talkative usually, he always became extraordinarily
loquacious when encouraged to speak of his own affairs. Utterly
exhausted by his chatter and feeling dreadfully tired, Mrs. Blaine
began to wish that her unwelcome visitor would go. The room was full
of tobacco smoke and his free-and-easy manner irritated her extremely.
Of course, his proposal was ridiculous, an