she answered quickly as her breath came back
with a gasp.

"Because if you would," he went on cautiously, "I'm in the market to
buy. It'll be a long time before that stock pays any dividend. How'd
you like to sell a few shares?"

"No, I'd rather not--not now, at least. I'll have to think it over
first. But won't you sit down? Really, I'm quite overcome! It's so
much more than I had a right to expect."

"If you'd sell me a few shares," went on Rimrock without finesse, "you
wouldn't have to work any more. Just name your price and----"

"Oh, I like to work," she countered gaily as she ran off a formal
receipt; and, signing her name, she handed it back to him with a
twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "And then there's another
reason--sit down, I want to talk to you--I think it will be better for
you. Oh, I know how you feel about it; but did you ever consider that
other people like their own way, too? Well, when you're off by
yourself just think that over, it will help you understand life."

Rimrock Jones sat down with a thud and took off his hat as he gazed at
this astonishing woman. She was giving him advice in a most superior
manner; and yet she was only a typist.

"You said something one time," she went on seriously, "that hurt my
feelings very much--something about being trimmed, and by a woman! I
resolved right there that you needed to be educated. Do you mind if I
tell you why? Well, in the first place, Mr. Jones, I admire you very
much for the way you've kept your word. You are absolutely honest and
I won't forget it when it comes to voting my stock. But that cynical
attitude that you chose to affect when you came to see me before--that
calm way of saying that you couldn't trust anybody, not even the person
addressed--that won't get you very far, where a woman is concerned.
That is, not very far with me."

She looked him over with a masterful smile and Rimrock began to fumble
his hat.

"You took it for granted," she went on accusingly, "that I had set out
from the first to trim you but--and here's the thing that makes me
furious--you said: 'Trimmed, by grab, by a _woman_!' Now I'd like to
enquire if in your experience you have found women less honest than
men; and in the second place I'd like to inform you that I'm just as
intelligent as you are. It was no disgrace, as I look at the matter,
for you to be bested by me; and as for being trimmed, I'd like to know
what grounds you have for th