“I didn’t,” denied Constance.  “He came the minute you left and I’d have screamed if he had proposed then, so I went away.  He dropped his straw hat, and it rolled after me and nearly touched me.  He dropped it every time I saw him that day.  Also he added the final indignity—­I overheard him tell Mr. Courtney that he intended to marry me whether I liked it or not.  Now, Polly, seriously, what would you have done if anything like that had happened to you?”

Polly waited to gain her self-control.

“I’d have taken the hat away from him,” she declared.

Constance sailed once more.

“I didn’t think of that,” she admitted.

“No, and instead here’s what you’ve done,” Polly pointed out to her:  “You turned Johnny loose to look after himself, and he isn’t capable of it since he fell in love; so for the last two weeks he’s been as savage as any ordinary business man.  That’s one thing.  For another, you’ve made yourself sick just pining and grieving for a sight of Johnny Gamble.”

“I haven’t!” indignantly denied Constance, and to prove that assertion her eyes filled with tears.  She covered them with her handkerchief and Polly petted her, and they both felt better.  “I think I’ll dress,” declared Constance after she had been thus refreshed.  “My headache’s much improved and I think I’d like to go somewhere.”  She hesitated a moment.

“You know everybody was to have gathered here to join Courtney’s Decoration Day party this afternoon,” she added.

“Yes, I remember that,” retorted Polly, “but I didn’t like to rub it in.  Shall I call up everybody and tell them it’s on again?”

“Please,” implored Constance, “and, Polly—­”

“Yes?”

“Tell Johnny to bring his Baltimore straw hat.”

While Polly was trying to get his number, Johnny Gamble sat face to face with his old partner.

“You have your nerve to come to me,” he said, as the eyebrowless young man sat himself comfortably in Johnny’s favorite leather arm-chair.

“There’s nobody else to go to,” explained Collaton, with an attempt at jauntiness.  “I’m dead broke, and if I don’t have two thousand dollars to-morrow I’ll quite likely be pinched.”

“I’m jealous,” stated Johnny.  “I had intended to do it myself.”

“I’ve been expecting you to,” acknowledged Collaton.  “That’s one of the reasons I came to you.”

“I admire you,” observed Johnny dryly.  “You bled me for two years, and yet you have the ingrowing gall to come and tell me you’re broke.”

“Well, it’s the truth,” defended Collaton.  “Look here, Johnny; I’ve heard that you made a lot of money in the last few weeks, but you haven’t had any more attachments against you, have you?”

“You bet I haven’t,” returned Johnny savagely.  “I’ve been waiting for just one more attempt, and then I intended—­”

“I know,” interrupted Collaton.  “You intended to beat Gresham and Jacobs and me to a pulp; and then have us pinched for disorderly conduct, and try to dig up the evidence at the trial.”