“Might—­yes,” she exclaimed.

“Oh, I know you don’t believe in ’em any more,” he went on.  “But let me tell you this—­I’ve got one idea right now that would make me five hundred dollars just as easy as that—­” He snapped his fingers at her as he continued:  “Do you hear?  As easy as that!” His wife, still skeptical, seemed to pay no heed, so petulantly he inquired:  “Why don’t you ask me about it?”

Fanny again stopped in her work and looked up.

“What is it?” she demanded in a resigned tone.

Jimmie frowned.  He did not like his wife’s incredulous attitude.

“That’s a fine way to ask!” he exclaimed.  Imitating her tone he went on:  “What is it?  You’d show more interest than that if I told you Mrs. Brown’s canary had died of the croup!”

In spite of herself Fanny smiled.  She was too good-natured to remain cross very long.  After all, it was only natural that her husband should confide in her.  In a more conciliatory tone, she said: 

“I didn’t mean anything, Jimmie.  What is the idea?”

But he was offended now.

“Oh, what’s the use?” he exclaimed.

“Go on, tell me,” she coaxed.

“What’s the use?  You wouldn’t think it was any good.”

“All right, then, don’t!” she exclaimed, turning away.  “I know there’d be nothing in it, anyway.”

He followed her across the room.  Airily he said: 

“Is that so?  Well, just to prove that there is something in it, I will tell you.  Of course I shouldn’t really expect to do it—­but the idea’s there just the same.”

“Well—­what is it?” she asked, stopping in her work to listen.

Jimmie took a chair and sat down on it straddle-wise.  Hesitatingly he said: 

“You know the fuss the papers made about Stafford marrying Virginia and how the Sunday editions had page after page about it with illustrations—­”

“Yes—­what about it?” she demanded, impatient to get to the point.

“And you know,” he went on, “how clever he’s been in keeping this from them by sending out the news that she’d gone to Europe for the winter—­”

“Yes.”

“Well, if I was to go to one of ’em and tip off the story that instead of being in Europe, Virginia was workin’ in a hotel for ten dollars a week, and I would agree not to tell any other paper about it, don’t you think I could get five hundred for it?  You just bet I could!”

Fanny had listened with growing indignation.  When he had finished she exclaimed: 

“Jimmie, if you did anything like that I’d never speak to you again—­never!”

Weakening before her outburst, he said evasively: 

“I told you I didn’t expect to do it.”

“Whether I think Virginia’s a fool or not,” went on his wife, “she’s my sister.  Right or wrong, she’s my sister and nobody—­not even you—­is going to do anything to hurt her feelings and get away with it without a fight from me.”