ellows never want to learn your trade like other people.
You talk about inspiration and uplifting the public, and all that, and
you want to do it in six months. You go to work on this new idea, and
come back here when you've finished it. Then it will be time enough to
talk about my end of it."

Jarvis rose.

"I am obliged to you, sir. I shall do it."

[Illustration: HE TAUGHT HIMSELF TO ABANDON HIS OLD INTROSPECTIVE HABITS
DURING THESE DAYS ON THE BOX.]

Mr. Frohman held out his hand. "Good luck to you. I shall hope for
rain."

"Thanks! Good morning, sir."

With the perfect ease of a lack of self-consciousness Jarvis made his
exit, leaving Mr. Frohman with a twinkle in his eyes.

The rest of the day a certain blond cabman on the avenue drove to
Franklin Simon's when he was ordered to Altman's, drew up in state at
McCreery's when he was told Bonwit Teller's.

"You must be drunk, driver," said one passenger. She held up her dollar
bill, indignantly, to dismiss him. He lifted his hat, perfunctorily, and
swept a bow.

"I am, madam, intoxicated with my own thoughts." He rattled off down the
street, leaving the woman rooted to the curb with astonishment.

He taught himself to abandon his old, introspective habits during these
days on the box, and forced his attention to fix itself upon the crowds,
his customers, the whole uptown panorama, so different from the night
crowds he sought. He recalled Bambi's saying to him that until he
learned not to exclude any of the picture he would never do big work.
Her words had a tantalizing way of coming back to him, things she had
tossed off in the long ago of their visit to New York together. He
longed for her vivid phrasing, her quick dart at the heart of the things
they talked of. It seemed incredible now that he had ever taken her as a
matter of course. As for the enigma of her marrying him, he never ceased
to ponder it.

True to his promise, he went to call on the "Probation Lady," as he
named her, and they became friends. He admired her enormously, and owed
much to her wise philosophy. He asked her to go riding in his cab, and
she accepted without hesitation. They rode from five to seven, one
afternoon, conversing through the shutter in the top of the cab,
laughing and enjoying themselves hugely, to the great amusement of
pedestrians along the way.

At the end of two weeks he and Hicks divided the spoils, and Hicks
resumed the box. It cemented a friendship which Jarv