he young man dropped a half-dollar into the boy's hand. The boy looked
at him for a moment with bright, canny eyes out of a dirty, intelligent
face, and then set off at a run. He approached the lady on the bench a
little doubtfully, but unembarrassed. He touched the brim of the old
plaid bicycle cap perched on the back of his head. The lady looked at
him coolly, without prejudice or favour.

"Lady," he said, "dat gent on de oder bench sent yer a song and dance by
me. If yer don't know de guy, and he's tryin' to do de Johnny act, say
de word, and I'll call a cop in t'ree minutes. If yer does know him, and
he's on de square, w'y I'll spiel yer de bunch of hot air he sent yer."

The young lady betrayed a faint interest.

"A song and dance!" she said, in a deliberate sweet voice that seemed
to clothe her words in a diaphanous garment of impalpable irony. "A new
idea--in the troubadour line, I suppose. I--used to know the gentleman
who sent you, so I think it will hardly be necessary to call the police.
You may execute your song and dance, but do not sing too loudly. It is
a little early yet for open-air vaudeville, and we might attract
attention."

"Awe," said the boy, with a shrug down the length of him, "yer know what
I mean, lady. 'Tain't a turn, it's wind. He told me to tell yer he's got
his collars and cuffs in dat grip for a scoot clean out to 'Frisco. Den
he's goin' to shoot snow-birds in de Klondike. He says yer told him not
to send 'round no more pink notes nor come hangin' over de garden gate,
and he takes dis means of puttin' yer wise. He says yer refereed him out
like a has-been, and never give him no chance to kick at de decision. He
says yer swiped him, and never said why."

The slightly awakened interest in the young lady's eyes did not abate.
Perhaps it was caused by either the originality or the audacity of the
snow-bird hunter, in thus circumventing her express commands against the
ordinary modes of communication. She fixed her eye on a statue standing
disconsolate in the dishevelled park, and spoke into the transmitter:

"Tell the gentleman that I need not repeat to him a description of my
ideals. He knows what they have been and what they still are. So far
as they touch on this case, absolute loyalty and truth are the ones
paramount. Tell him that I have studied my own heart as well as one can,
and I know its weakness as well as I do its needs. That is why I decline
to hear his pleas, whatever they