Jimmie rose and resumed his nervous pacing of the floor.  Hastily he said: 

“I ain’t going to do anything to hurt her feelings!  But I must say it’s pretty tough on a fellow to have all his good ideas spoiled!  Take the one I had about the auto.  I could have sold it for fifteen hundred dollars, but Virginia wouldn’t let me and made me send it back.  There was a great idea gone wrong—­” He was silent for a few moments and then suddenly he burst out:  “I’ve got another one.”

[Illustration:  “I’VE GOT ANOTHER IDEA,” SAID JIMMIE.  PAGE 305]

“What—­another idea?” exclaimed his wife sarcastically.

“Yes,” he replied eagerly, “and even you will think this one all right.”

“What is it?”

He looked round as if to make sure no one was listening.  Then, in a tragic whisper, he said: 

“We must bring Virginia and Stafford together again.”

“Jimmie!” exclaimed his wife, looking at him in amazement.

“You know she’s still in love with him, don’t you?” he went on calmly.

“Yes.”

“And he’s just crazy over her.  He ’phoned me again to-day asking about her.”

“Well—­what of it?”

A crafty expression came into her husband’s face.  He looked wise for a moment; then he said solemnly: 

“To make two people who are in love forget and forgive, all you have to do is to get them into each others’ arms.  That’s the way it would be with them!  Only stubbornness keeps them apart now—­just stubbornness!”

“Yes—­that’s true,” admitted Fanny.

“Well,” he said significantly, “it’s very simple—­we must get them into each others’ arms.”

“How?” she demanded.

“Ah,” he smiled, “that’s where my idea comes in.”

Fanny looked at him curiously.  It was the first time she had ever heard her husband say anything sensible.

“Go on—­tell me,” she said eagerly.

“If she sent for him,” he went on, “he’d break all speed laws getting up here, and if he came for her of his own accord—­if she thought he did that she’d be in his arms so quick that she’d make a bounding antelope look like a plumber’s assistant going back for his tools!”

Fanny looked puzzled.  She did not quite understand his meaning.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Her husband hesitated for a moment as if not daring to suggest what was on his mind; then suddenly he blurted out: 

“Suppose I ’phoned him—­right now—­that she had sent for him?”

“’Phone him—­that Virginia—­”

“Sure!  He’d think she’d given in and she’d think the same of him.  It would be a case of a pair of open arms, the rustle of a skirt, a little head on a manly chest and then good-bye John, farewell everything, and the lid is off!  I imagine that is some idea!”

Fanny clasped her hands nervously.  Hesitatingly she exclaimed: 

“Oh—­I think it’s splendid!  But—­what if they found out?”