I hope it is a fast one, because I want you to
get in it and come to me at once. I shall wait up for you, David.
Please come tonight. You don't know how badly I need you. You must
stay here with your mother and me, and I don't want you ever to go
away again,--unless you take me with you.
Your humble sweetheart,
ALIX.
P.S.--I wouldn't quarrel with you for five hundred million dollars.
P.S.S.--Oh, how I wish some kind genie could transport you to me
INSTANTLY! A.
Sealing the envelope, she sprang to her feet and started for
the door. She stopped halfway, dashed back and fished in a drawer
of her desk, found her purse and extracted a crumbling bank-note.
Without so much as a glance to ascertain its denomination, she
turned and sped downstairs.
Her eyes were aglow with excitement, her lips were parted in a
divine smile. She was a little out of breath. The boy gazed upon
her spellbound. In that brief, transcendent moment he fell deeply,
hopelessly in love,--and that is why, a moment later, he manfully
endeavoured to refuse the prodigious tip she was offering him. Only
when she stuffed it, with her own fingers, into the depths of his
breast pocket, directly over his heart, was he able to persuade
himself that he ought to accept it if for no other reason than it
would hurt her feelings if he didn't.
"You must go straight back just as fast as you can," she
was saying,--and what a sweet, wonderful voice she had, just like
some kind of a song he thought,--"and see that Mr.
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