"Used to be? Was, am, and will be till I end my days. Gee! Every week, whenever there was a spare dime, I've always bought this paper, to see if I could run acrost her name, and know where she was or what she's doing. Once, I seen a letter advertised for her, but that was all, till now. And here she is, a star, on a tour of her own, doin' business as a Little Human Flower. Great, ain't it?"
"Modunk, Ohio," Loveland read again. "Is that much of a place?"
"Never heard of it," admitted Bill. "But geography ain't been my speciality."
"It doesn't sound like a big town," said Val.
"No, that's so. But it's a lucky town, because the Little Human Flower's bloomin' there."
"Why don't you write, and say you'd like to have this engagement?"
"Me? Oh, Jiminy, am I a good looker, am I under thirty with a fashionable wardrobe on and off? Huh! Mine's mostly off." Bill laughed, and then sighed. "The good Lord didn't make me for no juvenile lead."
"But if she still likes you, she'd stretch a point in your favour," Loveland suggested.
"Jacobus wouldn't. He was the property man I told you about, that got me the sack on account of Lillie."
"By Jove," exclaimed Val, forgetting his own troubles enough to be genuinely interested in the dramatic development of Bill's love episode. "I say, you don't suppose he's married her since?"