"I'm in the importin' line, I am. Why, girl, I've put through every fad that's taken hold in the last five years—brought them over myself, too, I've dressed Broadway and Fifth Avenue in everything from rainy-day to harem skirts."
"Honest?"
"Sure! I've imported more good sellers than any dealer in New York. I got a new model now passin' customs that's to be a bigger hit than the sheath was. Say, when I brought over the hobble every house on the Avenue laughed in my face; and when I finally dumped a consignment on to one of them, the firm was scared stiff and wanted to countermand; but I had 'em and they couldn't jump me."
"Just think!"
"By Jove! it wasn't two weeks before that very model was the talk of New York and Lillian Russell was wearin' one in the second act of her show; and when she wears a model it's as good as made."
"Gee!" she said. "I could just sit and listen to you talk and talk."
He hunched close. "I sold the first dozen pannier dresses for a sum that would give you the blind staggers. I was just as scared as she was, too, but all you got to do with women is to get a few good-lookin' bell-sheep to lead and the others will follow fast."
She regarded him in the wan moonlight. "If there's anything I admire," she said, "it's a smart man."
"Oh, I don't know," he said. "I've just got a little better judgment than the next fellow. Those things come natural, that's all. In my line a fellow's got to know human nature. If I'd sprung the hobble on the Avenue five years ago I'd gone broke on the gamble; but I sprung the idea on 'em at just the right time."
Her hand, long and slim, lay like a bit of carved ivory on the sand; he leaned forward and covered it with his.