Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/21

 and me weight, tub-side, yuh'll just about have me record, won't yuh ?"

The chief smiled as he bent over the papers in front of him.

"My dear girl, we've had your record here for the last five years. That's part of our business."

"Hully gee!" said the girl, stiffening in the chair where she sat. Then, furrowing her young brow, she craned apprehensively about at the intimidating sheets of closely-written script.

"But that's not the point, Sadie," pursued her inquisitor. "The point is that you're a remarkably clever young woman."

Sadie Wimpel, under her rice-powder, turned promptly and visibly pink.

"Aw, Chief, cut out the con!"

"But I mean it." The girl shook her head.

"I'm a mutt and I know it. And I've been as nervous as a cat since I breezed in here, for when yuh swivel-chair boys throw a scare into me I flop straight back to me Eight' Ward talk. But plant me outside wit' the hotel broads and I can pull the s'ciety stuff so's Ida Vernon'd look like an also-ran!"

"You're not only clever, Sadie, but you're