ous riot
of Jacqueminots that filled the little room to overflowing, and brought
a wondrous light to three pairs of unbelieving eyes--then Mike
remembered. "Here," he said a little huskily, "let me help." But the
fingers, when he held them out, carried only the dime that Mike might
give, not the gold piece of the Millionaire.

"Aw, g'wan," scoffed the boy, jubilantly. "As if we'd let comp'ny pay!
Dis is our show!" And for the second time that day the Millionaire had
found something that money could not buy.

And thus it happened that the table, a little later, held a centerpiece
of flowers--four near-to-fading pinks in a bottomless, gold-banded
china cup.

It was the man who heard the honk of a motor-car in the street outside.
Instinctively he braced himself, and none too soon. There was a light
knock, then in the doorway stood the dearest girl in the world, a large
basket and a box in her hands.

"Oh, how lovely! You have the table all ready," she exclaimed, coming
swiftly forward. "And what a fine--_Billy_!" she gasped, as she
dropped the box and the basket on the table.

The boy turned sharply.

"Aw! Why did n't ye tell a feller?" he reproached the man; then to the
Girl: "_Does_ ye know him? He _said_ ter call him 'Mike.'"

The man rose now. With an odd directness he looked straight into the
Girl's startled eyes.

"Maybe Miss Carrolton don't remember me much, as I am now," he murmured.

The Girl flushed. The man, who knew her so well, did not need to be
told that the angry light in her eyes meant that she suspected him of
playing this masquerade for a joke, and that she did not like it. Even
the dearest girl in the world had a temper--at times.

"But why--are you--here?" she asked in a cold little voice.

The man's eyes did not swerve.

"Jimmy asked me to come."

"He asked you to come!"

"Sure I did," interposed Jimmy, with all the anxiety of a host who sees
his guest, for some unknown reason, being made uncomfortable. "I
knowed youse would n't mind if we did ask comp'ny ter help eat de
dinner, an' he lost his boat, ye see, an' had a mug on him as long as
me arm, he was that cut up 'bout it. He was sellin' poipers down t' de
dock."

"Selling papers!"

"As it happened, I did not _sell_ them," interposed the man, still with
that steady meeting of her eyes. "Jimmy sold them for me. He will
tell you that I was n't on to my job, so he helped me out."

"Aw, furgit it," grinned Jimmy s