knock my forehead on the sill of her parlor door."

"Did you really like him? I think he's clever and entertaining but I
wouldn't want him for a friend."

"I didn't think about him that way. I just sort of stood off and
admired. He's the most _magnetic_ thing!"

"Yes, I suppose he is, but--"

"There are no buts about it." Then in the voice of knowledge, "I'll tell
you what he is, I'll put it in terms you can understand--he's the perfect
specimen of the real, genuine, solid gold nugget."




CHAPTER XII

A KISS


After the dinner Mayer walked downtown. He had been a good deal
surprised, rather amused, and in the drawing-room afterward extremely
bored. His amusement was sardonic. He grinned at the thought of himself
in such company and wondered if it could have happened anywhere but
California. Those two girls, rich and young, were apparently free to ask
anybody into their house. It was curious, and he saw them similarly
placed in Europe; they would have been guarded like the royal treasure,
chiefly to keep such men as himself out.