day."

"Then," says I, "I see where I cut next Friday off the calendar."

"Unless," suggests Vee, droppin' her long eyelashes coy, "you were not
too stupid to think of----"

"Say," I breaks in, "gimme that number again, will you? Suppose I could
duck meetin' Westy if I came the first evenin'?"

"If you're at all afraid of him, you shouldn't run the risk," comes back
Vee.

"Chance is my middle name," says I. "Only him stickin' around does make
a room so crowded. I didn't know but he might miss a night
occasionally."

Vee sticks the tip of her tongue out. "Just two during the last ten
days, if you want to know," says she.

"Huh!" says I. "Must think he holds a season ticket."

I couldn't make out, either, what it was that Vee seems so amused over;
for as near as I can judge she was never very strong for Sappy herself.
Maybe it was just a string she was handin' me.

Havin' decided on that, I waits patient until eight-fifteen Monday
evenin', and then breezes cheery and hopeful through the Ulls' front
door and into the front room. No Westy in sight, or anybody else. The
maid says the young ladies are in somewhere, and she'll tell 'em I've
come.

So I wanders about amongst the furniture, that's set around almost as
thick as in a showroom,--heavy, fancy pieces, most likely ones that had
been sent up from the store as stickers. The samples of art on the walls
struck me as a bit gaudy too, and I was tryin' to guess how it would
seem if you had to live in that sort of clutter continual, when out
through the slidin' doors from the lib'ry appears Sappy the Constant.

"The poor prune!" thinks I. "I wonder if I've got time to work up some
scheme of puttin' the skids under him?"

But instead of givin' me the haughty stare as usual he rushes towards me
smilin' and excited. "Oh, I say!" he breaks out. "Torchy, isn't it?
Well, I--I've got a big piece of news."

"I know," says I. "Someone's told you that the Panama Canal's full of
water."

"No, no!" says he. "It--it's about me. Just happened, you know. And
really I must tell someone."

I had a choky sensation in my throat about then, and my breath came a
little short; but I managed to get out husky, "Well, toss it over."

Westy beams grateful. "Isn't it wonderful?" says he. "I--I've got her!"

"Eh?" I gasps, grippin' a chair back.

"She just told me," says he, "in there. She's--she's wearing my ring
now."

Got me right under the belt buckle, that did. I felt wabbl