ook the trolley to that city, met him at the wharf, and sent
him back to New York. I gave him a check with instructions to have it
cashed in that city and to send the money, and my mail, to Frederick
Fitzgibbon. This ALIAS I explained to him by saying I was gathering
material for an article to prove one could live on fifty cents a day.
He was greatly relieved to learn I did not need a valet to help me prove
it.

I returned driving the Phoenix to New Bedford, and as it was a Saturday,
when the store closed at noon, I had the ineffable delight of taking
Polly Briggs for a drive. As chaperons she invited two young friends of
hers named Lowell. They had been but very lately married, and regarded
me no more than a chauffeur they had hired by the hour. This left Polly
who was beside me on the front seat, and myself, to our own devices.
Our devices were innocent enough. They consisted in conveying the
self-centred Lowells so far from home that they could not get back for
supper and were so forced to dine with me. Polly, for as Polly I now
thought of her, discovered the place. It was an inn, on the edge of a
lake with an Indian name. We did not get home until late, but it had
been such a successful party that before we separated we planned another
journey for the morrow. That one led to the Cape by way of Bourne and
Wood's Hole, and back again to the North Shore to Barnstable, where we
lunched. It was a grand day and the first of others just as happy. After
that every afternoon when the store closed I picked up the Lowells; and
then Polly, and we sought adventures. Sometimes we journeyed no farther
than the baseball park, but as a rule I drove them to some inn for
dinner, where later, if there were music, we danced, if not, we returned
slowly through the pine woods and so home by the longest possible route.
The next Saturday I invited them to Boston. We started early, dined at
the Touraine and went on to a musical comedy, where I had reserved seats
in the front row. This nearly led to my undoing. Late in the first act
a very merry party of young people who had come up from Newport and
Narragansett to the Coates-Islip wedding filled the stage boxes and
at sight of me began to wave and beckon. They were so insistent that
between the acts I thought it safer to visit them. They wanted to know
why I had not appeared at the wedding, and who was the beautiful girl.

The next morning on our return trip to New Bedford Polly said, "I rea