"Hush!" admonished Loring. "He is the remnant of one of our very
best imported families, and he needs the money. He sells a piece of
father's property every year, and he haunts Miss Joy like a
pestilence. I think he's mixed up in her million some way or other.
Aunt Pattie approves of him very much; she is strong for family."

"I'll bite him yet," decided Gamble. "Say, Loring, how am I going to
make a stringless million?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be your lawyer," declared Loring.
"Excuse me, Johnny; there's a client of mine."





CHAPTER II

IN WHICH STRANGERS BECOME OLD FRIENDS




Into the box where Miss Constance Joy--slender and dark and tall--
entertained her bevy of admirers, there swished a violently-gowned
young woman of buxom build and hearty manner, attended by a young
man who wore a hundred-dollar suit and smiled feebly whenever he
caught an eye. In his right hand he carried Miss Polly Parsons'
gloves and parasol; in his left, her race-card and hand-bag. Round
his shoulders swung her field-glasses; from his right pocket