"He was smiling," laughed Constance. "Here comes the chairman of the floor-walkers' committee." 

 Gresham, always uneasy in the absence of Constance, who was too valuable a part of his scheme of life to be left in charge of his friends, had come into the garden after them on the pretext of consulting the general committee. 

 "Do you know anything about the Garfield Bank?" Constance asked Gresham in the first convenient pause. 

 "It is very good as far as I have heard," he replied after careful consideration. "Are there any rumors out against it?" 

 "Quite the contrary," she hastily assured him. "It is so convenient, however, that I had thought of opening a small account there. Mr. Gamble transferred his funds to that bank to-day—and if he can trust them with over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars I should think I might give them my little checking account." 

 When they were alone again Loring turned to her in surprise. 

 "I have Johnny's money in my name. I didn't know he had opened an account with the Garfield Bank," he wondered. 

 "Neither did I," she laughed. "I told a fib! I laid a trap!" 

 

 

 CHAPTER X 

 IN WHICH JOHNNY IS SINGULARLY THRILLED BY A LITTLE CONVERSATION OVER THE TELEPHONE 

 Mr. Gamble, on his arrival the following afternoon, found Miss Purry very coldly regretful that she had already disposed of her property for a working-girls' home, at a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, having made a twenty-five-thousand-dollar reduction by way of a donation to the cause. Johnny drove back into the city rapidly—for he was now only sixteen hours ahead of his schedule. He was particularly out of sorts because Miss Purry had mentioned that the De Luxe Apartments Company had been after the plot. It is small satisfaction to a loser to have his judgment corroborated. 

 There was a Bronx project, involving the promotion of a 

 Prev. P 59/152 next