"'Alas!' said I, 'I spent the thirty dollars in riotous living.'

"'And thirty days more for wasting your substance.'

"'Next case!' said his Honor to the clerk.

"Slim was stunned. 'Gee!' he whispered. 'Gee the push gets ten days
and you get sixty. Gee!'"

Leith struck a match, lighted his dead cigar, and opened the book on
his knees. "Returning to the original conversation, don't you find,
Anak, that though Loria handles the bipartition of the revenues with
scrupulous care, he yet omits one important factor, namely--"

"Yes," I said absently; "yes."



AMATEUR NIGHT


The elevator boy smiled knowingly to himself. When he took her up,
he had noted the sparkle in her eyes, the color in her cheeks.
His little cage had quite warmed with the glow of her repressed
eagerness. And now, on the down trip, it was glacier-like. The
sparkle and the color were gone. She was frowning, and what little
he could see of her eyes was cold and steel-gray. Oh, he knew the
symptoms, he did. He was an observer, and he knew it, too, and some
day, when he was big enough, he was going to be a reporter, sure.