"So you expected to slip in and out without being caught, did you?" Jerry was saying. "Pretty sort of a friend, you are! You might at least have let a fellow know you were going to be in this part of the world; where are you staying?"
"I don't see how that's the slightest concern of yours," she said demurely.
"The same old Una!" cried Jerry delightedly. "Always making game of a fellow. Do sit down again and let's have a chat. It seems ages since I've seen you. How's the day nursery coming on? Did you get the last check? I meant to stop in and see the plans. I couldn't, though," he frowned a little. "Something turned up. Business, you know."
"Jerry _is_ busy," I put in mischievously, as I sat down beside them. "He worked Tuesday and Wednesday this week."
"Aren't you afraid of injuring your health, Jerry?" she asked sweetly. "I hope you're not working _too_ hard."
"Roger's a chump. He sits staring at a sheet of foolscap all day and thinks he's working. I do work, though. I'm reorganizing a railroad," he finished proudly.
"How splendid! I'm sure it needs it. Railroads are the most disorganized and disorganizing--"
"And I'm engaged in a freight war with a rival steamship company. It's perfectly bully. I've got 'em backed off the map. We're carrying stuff for almost nothing and they're howling for help." He had taken out his pipe and was lighting it. "I'm going to buy 'em out," he finished. "But you don't want to hear about _me_. What are--"
"I do. Of course"--and she exchanged a quick glance with me. "Of course, I see a little about you in the papers--your interest in athletics--"
"Oh, I say, Una," he cried, flushing a dark red. "It's not fair to--"
"I'm fearfully interested," she persisted calmly. "You know it's actually gotten me into the habit of the sporting page. 'Walloping' Houligan and 'Scotty' Smith, the Harlem knock-out artist, are no longer empty names for me. They're real people with jabs and things."
"I've been waiting breathlessly for your next encounter. I hope it's with 'Scotty.' It would be so much more of an achievement to win from a real knock-out artist--"
"Stop it, Una," he cried painfully. "I forbid you--"
"Do you mean," she asked innocently, "that you don't like to discuss--"