“What’s the matter with me—any complaints about my manner of playing host?” demanded Jack.
“No, but that’s just it, Jacky,” laughed Eleanor. “You only play host, while Dalky is the real thing.”
“Humph!” snorted Jack, then he turned away to Dodo. “I see you disagree with the others—and it’s just as well that you do, or I would resign, and take up my valet duties again.”
The girls smiled, but Algy had not heard of Jack’s engagement as a valet, so he was horrified at what he just heard.
“Valet! Valet! Wh-y,—I was told by Mrs. Alexander that you were quite my equal in society. She never mentioned the fact that you had been a common servant,” gasped Algy, horrified at the disclosure.
“Oh! didn’t you,” was Jack’s delighted reply. “Perhaps Mrs. Alex. never knew it herself, or I’m sure she never would have associated with me so intimately.” Then Jack sighed heavily and added, to the girls’ intense amusement, “I have had a hard life of it—till Mr. Dalken took an interest in my future career and offered me the position of valet to himself. You can imagine how I jumped at such a chance—having been a waif thrown upon the mercies of a cold world all those years!”
“You don’t say!” was all Algy could whisper in his distress at hearing such astounding revelations from a young man whom he had fondly believed to be a millionaire. What a shock to his sensitive self!
“You will pawdon me, I’m suah, Mr. Baxter, but I—ah—feel that I must attend to an urgent errand,” stammered the troubled youth.
“Certainly! Certainly!” agreed Jack, grinning broadly as Algy hurriedly left the group to seek out Mrs. Alexander.
“Oh! That’s the best joke yet!” laughed Eleanor.