"Hel-lup!" says I. "You are? Say, how long does this last?"
"It's a two-year course," says Vee.
"Stick to it," says I. "That'll give me time to take lessons from Westy on how to get an income wished onto me."
As it stands, though, Vee's got me distanced. Please, ain't somebody got a plute aunt to spare?
CHAPTER II
TOWING CECIL TO A SMEAR
Just think! If it had turned out a little different I might have been called to stand on a platform in front of City Hall while the Mayor wished a Victoria Cross or something like that on me.
No, I ain't been nearer the front than Third Avenue, but at that I've come mighty near gettin' on the firin' line, and the only reason I missed out on pullin' a hero stunt was that Maggie wa'n't runnin' true to form.
It was like this. Here the other mornin', as I'm sittin' placid at my desk dictatin' routine correspondence into a wax cylinder that's warranted not to yank gum or smell of frangipani—sittin' there dignified and a bit haughty, like a highborn private sec. ought to, you know—who should come paddin' up to my elbow but the main wheeze, Old Hickory Ellins.