title="[Pg 6]"/> fat ladies. Ranged at intervals along the glass-enclosed front were four other equally stout ladies, lolling back in equally comfortable chairs, some reading, some dozing. Mr. Zinsheimer, who had anticipated a pleasant morning reading the New York papers, was obviously annoyed. Fortunately, he knew the proper method of attacking and routing the enemy.

One of the stout ladies, puzzling over her next move, was almost choked when a whiff of smoke was blown across the checker-board. A moment later, a somnolent and rotund lady in one of the rockers started up furiously as another whiff drifted in her direction. A page-boy entering at this particular moment was hurriedly summoned by the indignant ladies, and Mr. Zinsheimer, gazing vacantly into space, felt a slight touch on the arm.

"Beg pardon, sir," said the boy, "smoking is not permitted here."

Mr. Zinsheimer frowned.

"I did not ask permission," he replied.

Two of the stout ladies gathered up their magazines, glowered at the placid Zinsheimer and the nonplussed boy, murmured "Wretch," and departed.

"But I mean, there's no smoking here," continued the boy.

"Marky" Zinsheimer blew a particularly large whiff of smoke in the direction of the checker-table.

"You're wrong, kid," he remarked. "There is smoking here, and I'm doing it."

"But it's against the hotel rules."

"Hotel rules are like a woman's mind," said "Marky" carelessly, moving toward the checker-table. "They can be changed to fit any situation."

The checker-players were so much absorbed in their game that they did not notice him at first, so he leaned over the table, genially, and inquired:

"Well, whose move is it now?"

"I believe it's mine," retorted one of the two players, indignantly rising to her feet and starting toward the door.

"And mine," responded the other, following suit. At the door the twain paused and called to the other occupant of the room: "We are going for a walk, Mabel. Won't you come?"

Mabel picked up her book and moved toward the irate checker-players who had been so summarily routed.

"I don't like that cigar," she declared, stopping and turning to Zinsheimer.

"Well, then, try one of these," responded the irrepressible "Marky," offering several long perfectos from a leather case. He was answered only by a snort of indignation, and the next moment the smiling and courteous Mr. Zinsheimer, alone on the field of battle, settled himself in the most comfortable of the vacated chairs.

But "Marky's" serenity was to be short-lived. There was a rattle of chatelaine chains, a vague and indistinct odor of some unrecognizable but vivid perfume, the rustle of silken skirts, a cry of glad surprise, and Miss Flossie Forsythe, engaging, attractive, youthful and magnetic, settled herself on the arm of his rocking-chair as though entitled to rest there by the law of eminent domain.

"Marky," she cried, "I've been looking for you everywhere! Who ever would have thought of finding you in the sun parlor?"

Mr. Zinsheimer coughed uneasily.

"Yes, that's just what I thought," he stammered. "You see," he added, "I noticed you talking to that swell chap Gordon in the lobby, and I didn't like it."

Flossie patted his cheek playfully, in spite of "Marky's" efforts to elude her, and said joyfully:

"Oh, Marky, you were jealous!"

Mr. Zinsheimer grunted.

"Well, if you want to find a new backer, go ahead. All right, only you'd better be careful I don't get cold feet first. Feather importers is in demand on Broadway this season," he added as an afterthought.

"But Mr. Gordon is an old friend," pouted Flossie. "I was introduced to him one night when he sat at a table next to me during the run of 'Florodora.'"

"I suppose you were one of them original sextetters, eh?"

"Now, Marky, don't be horrid when I was just going to ask a little favor of you."

Mr. Zinsheimer rose to his feet carefully, and buttoned up his coat with an ominous air, while, relieved of his ballast, Flossie almost fell from her comfortable perch on the arm of the big chair.

"Nothing doing, Flossie," remarked Zinsheimer, coldly. "Of course it's all right for me to pay the hotel bill of my fiancée, but as the bill is assuming generous proportions, I don't think the fiancée should expect to go any further."

Flossie's dark eyes half filled with tears, and there was just a slight suspicion of a twitch around the lips at the injustice done her, and she said plaintively:

"Oh, I don't want to borrow any money."

At that Zinsheimer threw open his coat easily, sighed with relief, and inquired easily:

"Why, certainly, my dear. What is it you want?"

"Well, it's about my chum, Pinkie Lexington," began Flossie, brushing a few spects of dust from Mr. Zinsheimer's coat-sleeve. "We were out together two years ago with 'The Girl from Paris'—the time it stranded in Butte and you sent us the railroad tickets to come home."

"I remember," interrupted Zinsheimer, quickly. "Rather a pretty girl she was, too."

"She's still pretty, but she's awful fat," resumed Flossie, wonderfully innocently. "And I never heard any one call her beautiful. Anyhow, the show she's with has gone on the rocks up near Indianapolis, and Pinkie has been left high and dry without a cent."

"So you want me to send her some more rocks, eh?"

"Not at all. Pinkie wrote me all about it, and I wired her to come down here at once. She's due this afternoon, and I can share my room with her if you'll just speak to the manager and say we're good for the money."

Zinsheimer scratched his head reflectively.

"But neither of you has any money," he ventured.

"You know as soon as my lawsuit is settled, I will be on velvet," retorted Flossie, haughtily. "Meanwhile, your word with the manager goes."

"Lawsuit?" repeated Mr. Zinsheimer. "Now, Flossie, that's been going on for five years and I never found out yet what it was all about. Where is it and when will it be settled?"

Flossie's evident embarrassment at the inquiry into the facts of her lawsuit was fortunately terminated by the sudden entrance of a bell-boy with a telegram for "Miss Forsythe."

"That's me, boy," cried Flossie, grabbing the envelope and tearing it open. "It's from Pinkie and she'll be here on the 3:30 train," she explained, turning to Zinsheimer. "Boy, call me a carriage."

"Yes, Miss," responded the boy, moving toward the office.

"And have it charged to my room," called Flossie, hastily. Then, taking "Marky" by the coat lapels, she turned her big brown eyes upward and asked archly:

"You will speak to the manager about Pinkie?"

Mr. Zinsheimer endeavored to gain time, but the appeal was direct and to the point. He coughed twice, as if planning resistance, and then surrendered.

"All right," he growled. "I'll speak to the manager, Flossie, but I know who'll pay the bill."

"You old dear," cried Flossie, and in another moment the rattling chatelaines, the vague and unrecognizable perfume, the rustling skirts and the fascinating Flossie flitted along the veranda toward the waiting carriage, while "Marky" tried to get interested in the New York papers and figure the total of seventeen days at five dollars a day, with extras in the shape of flowers, carriages, candies, manicures, tips, and other incidentals dear to the heart of a lovely woman who lives economically but well.