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She had observed these things almost unconsciously, and yet they made their

impression upon her, so that when he had finished she recalled them, and was

emboldened thereby to offer him a bill in payment for his services. He refused, as

she had almost expected him to do, for while his clothes and his shoes suggested

that he might accept a gratuity, his voice and his manner belied them.

During the operation of changing the wheel the young man had a good

opportunity to appraise the face and figure of the girl, both of which he found

entirely to his liking, and when finally she started off, after thanking him, he

stood upon the curb watching the car until it disappeared from view.

Slowly he drew from his pocket an envelope which had been addressed and

stamped for mailing, and very carefully tore it into small bits which he dropped

into the gutter. He could not have told had any one asked him what prompted

him to the act. A girl had come into his life for an instant, and had gone out

again, doubtless forever, and yet in that instant Jimmy Torrance had taken a new

grasp upon his self-esteem.

It might have been the girl, and again it might not have been. He could not tell.

Possibly it was the simple little act of refusing the tip she had proffered him. It

might have been any one of a dozen little different things, or an accumulation of

them all, that had brought back a sudden flood of the old self-confidence and

optimism.

"To-morrow," said Jimmy as he climbed into his bed, "I am going to land a job."

And he did. In the department store to the general managership of whose mail-

order department he had aspired Jimmy secured a position in the hosiery

department at ten dollars a week. The department buyer who had interviewed

him asked him what experience he had had with ladies' hosiery.

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