ell them every time--style and all."

"I'll bet you're a New York fellow, too."

"Little New York is good enough for me. I've been over in Paris four
months, now, and, believe me, it looked good yesterday to see the old
girlie holdin' her lamp over the harbor."

Miss Sternberger ran her hand over the smooth sheen of her dress; her
gown was chaste, even stern, in its simplicity--the expensive simplicity
that is artful rather than artless.

"That's a neat little model you're wearin'."

"Aw, Mr. Arnheim, what do you know about clothes?"

Mr. Arnheim threw back his head and laughed long and loud. "What do I
know about clothes? I only been in the biz for eight years. What I don't
know about ladies' wear ain't in the dictionary."

"Well," said Miss Sternberger, "that's so; I did hear you was in the
business."

"I'm in the importin' line, I am. Why, girl, I've put through every fad
that's taken hold in the last five years--brought them over myself, too,
I've dressed Broadway and Fifth Avenue in everything from rainy-day to
harem skirts."

"Honest?"

"Sure! I've imported more good sellers than any dealer in New York. I
got a new model now passin' customs that's to be a bigger hit than the
sheath was. Say, when I brought over the hobble every house on the
Avenue laughed in my face; and when I finally dumped a consignment on to
one of them, the firm was scared stiff and wanted to countermand; but I
had 'em and they couldn't jump me."

"Just think!"

"By Jove! it wasn't two weeks before that very model was the talk of New
York and Lillian Russell was wearin' one in the second act of her show;
and when she wears a model it's as good as made."

"Gee!" she said. "I could just sit and listen to you talk and talk."

He hunched close. "I sold the first dozen pannier dresses for a sum that
would give you the blind staggers. I was just as scared as she was, too,
but all you got to do with women is to get a few good-lookin' bell-sheep
to lead and the others will follow fast."

She regarded him in the wan moonlight. "If there's anything I admire,"
she said, "it's a smart man."

"Oh, I don't know," he said. "I've just got a little better judgment
than the next fellow. Those things come natural, that's all. In my line
a fellow's got to know human nature. If I'd sprung the hobble on the
Avenue five years ago I'd gone broke on the gamble; but I sprung the
idea on 'em at just the right time."

Her hand, long and slim, lay l