Five Thousand an Hour | Page 7

the
pocket of Sammy Chirp. "You haven't seen me since I got back."
"You're no surprise--you're a gasp!" he informed her, heartily glad to

see her. "That sunset bonnet is a maraschino."
"Pinkest one they had," she complacently assured him. "I want you to
meet some friends of mine, Johnny." And, with vast pride in her
acquaintanceship with all parties concerned, she introduced him to
Constance and Aunt Pattie.
Johnny Gamble and Constance Joy, for just a moment, looked upon
each other with the frank liking which sometimes makes strangers old
friends. Gresham saw that instant liking and stiffened. Johnny Gamble,
born in a two-room cottage and with sordid experiences behind him of
which he did not like to think in this company, dropped his eyes;
whereupon Miss Constance Joy, who had been cradled under silken
coverlets, studied him serenely. She had little enough opportunity to
inspect odd types at close range--and this was a very interesting
specimen. His eyes were the most remarkable blue she had ever seen.
"Cousin Polly has been telling us most pleasant things about you," she
observed.
"Your cousin Polly?" he inquired, perplexed.
"Yes; we're cousins now," announced Polly happily. "It's the first time I
ever had any relations, and I'm tickled stiff!"
"So am I!" agreed Johnny heartily, figuring vaguely that somebody or
other must have married.
"You are just in the nick of time, Gamble," Gresham quietly stated with
a deliberate intention of humiliating this child of no one. "Miss Polly
has a subscription list which she wants you to complete."
"He's too late," replied Polly with a flash of her eyes in Gresham's
direction. "Mr. Loring just closed up that list," and she winked
vigorously at Loring.
"Loring's my friend," Gamble said with a cheerful laugh. "I have
check-writer's cramp. Who's to get the loving cup?"

"The loving cup's a bottle," Polly returned. "This is a baby's benefit. It's
Constance's pet scheme and I'm crazy about it. We've found a big,
hundred-room summer hotel, with two hundred acres of ground, on a
high bluff overlooking the ocean; and we're going to turn it into a free
hotel for sickly babies and their mothers. Isn't that some scheme?"
"I'm so strong for it I ache!" announced Mr. Gamble with fervor. "Put
me down for--" He checked himself ruefully. "I forgot I was broke!"
Gresham shrugged his shoulders in satisfaction.
"You'll take something for that," Polly confidently comforted her friend
Gamble. "There's G. W. Mason & Company, Johnny. Take me over to
him and watch me fool him when he says he has no check-book with
him. I have check blanks on every bank in town. Bring along my hand-
bag and my subscription list, Sammy."
When they had gone, with the feebly pleased Sammy dutifully bringing
up the rear, Gresham looked after them with relief.
"Handicap day brings out some queer people," he observed.
"If you mean Mr. Gamble I think him delightful," Constance quickly
advised him. "I'm inclined to agree with Polly that he is very much a
gentleman."
"He would be quite likely to appeal to Polly," remarked Aunt Pattie as
she arose for a visit to a near-by box.
"You mean Cousin Polly," corrected Constance sweetly.
Gresham was very thoughtful. He was more logically calculating than
most people thought him.
It was Polly's cousinship which puzzled Johnny Gamble. "When you
picked a cousin you made some choice," he complimented her. "How
did you do it?"
"They made me," she explained. "You know that Billy Parsons was the

only man I ever wanted to marry--or ever will, I guess. His folks met
me once and wouldn't stand for me at all; then Billy took sick and went
out of his head. He cried for me so that the doctor said he had to have
me; so I canceled the best engagement I ever had. I wasn't a star, but I
was featured and was making an awful hit. I went right to the house,
though, and stayed two months--till Billy died. Then I went back to
work; but I hated it. Well, along toward the last they'd got so friendly
that I was awful lonesome. It wasn't long till they got lonesome too.
They're old, you know; and Billy was all they had. So they came after
me and I went with them; and they adopted me and we all love each
other to death. Constance's my cousin now--and she stands it without
batting an eyelash. She's about the cream of the earth, Johnny!"
He drew in his breath sharply.
"You're a lucky kid!" he told her.
There was something in the intensity of his tone which made her look
up at him, startled.
"Now don't you fall in love with her, Johnny!" she begged.
"Why not?" he demanded. "I never tried it; but