E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 29753-h.htm or 29753-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29753/pg29753-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29753/29753-h.zip) THE GORGEOUS GIRL by NALBRO BARTLEY Illustrated [Illustration: "He was very diplomatic in his undertaking"] Garden City--New York Doubleday, Page & Company 1920 Copyright, 1920, By Doubleday, Page & Company All Rights Reserved, Including That of Translation into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian Copyright, 1919, 1920, by The Curtis Publishing Company ILLUSTRATIONS "He was very diplomatic in his undertaking" Frontispiece FACING PAGE "The Gorgeous Girl had never known anything but the most gorgeous side of life" 12 "It was with a charming timidity that she tip-toed into the office" 188 "A get-rich-quick man always pays for his own speed" 284 THE GORGEOUS GIRL CHAPTER I "Before long two bank accounts will beat as one," Trudy said to Mary Faithful. "Tra-la-la-la-la," humming the wedding march while the office force of the O'Valley Leather Company listened with expressions ranging from grins to frowns. "Sh-h-h! Mr. O'Valley has just opened his door." As she was private secretary and general guardian to Steve O'Valley, president of the concern, Miss Faithful's word usually had a decisive effect. But Trudy was irrepressible. Besides boarding at the Faithful home and thus enjoying a certain intimacy with Mary, she was one of those young persons who holds a position merely as a means to an end--the sort who dresses to impress everyone, from the president of the concern if he is in the matrimonial or romantic market to the elevator boy if said elevator boy happens to have a bank account capable of taking one to all the musical shows and to supper afterward. Having been by turns a milliner's apprentice, assistant in a beauty parlour, and cashier in a business men's restaurant, Truletta Burrows had acquired a certain chicness enabling her to twist a remnant of chiffon or straw into a creation and wear it in impressive contrast with her baby-blue eyes and Titian-red hair. In the majority of cases where a girl has neither family nor finances she must seek a business situation in order to win a husband. Trudy went after her game in no hesitating manner.