"Mannie!" exclaimed Vera gently but reproachfully, "I told you I
wouldn't loan you any more money till you paid Mabel what you've
borrowed."
"How can I pay Mabel what I borrowed," demanded Mannie, if I
can't borrow the money from you to pay her? Only two dollars,
Vera!"
Vera nodded to Mabel.
Mabel, at the phone, called, "Two dollars on Pompadour -- to --
win -- for Mannie Day," and rang off.
"That makes thirty for you," exclaimed Mannie enthusiastically,
"and twenty I owe to Mabel, and that leaves me ten."
Mrs. Vance, no longer occupied in the whirlpool of speculation,
for the first time observed that Vera had changed her matronly
robe of black lace for a short white skirt and a white
shirtwaist. She noted also that there was a change in Vera's
face and manner. She gave an impression of nervous eagerness, of
unrest. Her smile seemed more appealing, wistful, girlish. She
looked like a child of fourteen.
But Mabel was concerned more especially with the robe of virgin
white.
For the month, which was July, the costume was appropriate, but,
in the opinion of Mabel, in no way suited to the priestess of
the occult and the mysterious.
"Why, Vera!" exclaimed Mrs. Vance, "whatever have you got on?
Ain't you going to receive visitors? There's ten dollars waiting
in there now."
In sudden apprehension, Vera looked down at her spotless
garments.
"Don't I look nice?" she begged.
"Of course you look nice, dearie," Mabel assured her, "but you
don't look like no fortune teller.
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