"Mount Vernon 1000."
"What a bally idiot I am!" he muttered. "Know the Belvedere number as well as my own home. Always called it 'Mount Vernon ten hundred' or 'Mount Vernon one-o-double o.' Dumb jackass! Gee! what a close shave! Wonder Jennie didn't see me when she went in that other booth."
Then the funny side of it struck him, and he laid his head on the desk and laughed unrestrainedly. Was ever a contretemps more ridiculous?
When he at last emerged from the booth the demure operator looked up at him without the trace of a smile.
"Twenty cents, please," she said.
"It's worth more than that," remarked Daniel cheerfully. "Gosh, but you're a wonder! I take off my hat to you." He made a low sweeping bow.
The girl smiled. "It was funny," she admitted.
"How on earth did you manage it?"
"You asked for somebody at 'Mount Vernon one-o-double-o', didn't you? You got them, didn't you?"
"All the same, you're a wonder!" he rejoined, with undisguised admiration.