"Perhaps
you'll learn to care for him by degrees like you would--say, for Mr.
Stafford."
"Don't talk nonsense," cried Virginia.
"He's interested in you, and if you play your cards right--"
"I'm not _going_ to play any cards."
"Let me tell you one thing," he said, rising and going to the table,
"a chance like this don't come to one girl in a million."
"Please!--" exclaimed Virginia, putting up her hand to stop his
talk.
But Jimmie was not so easily suppressed. Earnestly he went on:
"It's a chance of a life time. It means a lot to me and Fanny too."
"Yes, that's true," chimed in his fiancee.
Virginia turned and looked at her sister.
"How?" she demanded.
Jimmie, as usual, replied for his slower-witted partner:
"Do you think," he said, "I want to be a shipping clerk all my life?
Well, I don't. I've got ambitions. Yes, and I've got the ability. All
I need is a chance and I'd be one of 'em, too."
"One of what?"
"A captain of industry, a magnate, a financier."
"You!"
"Me."
"He could do it," exclaimed Fanny admiringly.
"You bet I could," he said positively. Turning to Virginia, he went
on: "And if you married Mr. Stafford and he gave me a chance, which as
his brother-in-law he certainly would--well, if I ever got a flying
start I'd show 'em a few things. I've got ability, I have."
"Why don't you prove it by getting eighteen dollars a week?" retorted
Virginia sarcastically.
Turning her back on him, she walked away and took a seat near the
window, where she could look out on the street.
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