"I'm not a votary of Venus!" retorted Brown, turning pink. "I'll punch you if you say it again. I'm as decent and respectable a business man as you are! And my grammar is better. And, thank Heaven! I've intellect enough to recognize a miracle when it happens to me.... Do you think I am capable of harboring any sentiments that might bring the blush of coquetry to the cheek of modesty? Do you?" "Well--well, _I_ don't know what you're up to!" Smith raised his voice in bewilderment and despair. "I don't know what possesses you to act this way. People don't experience miracles in New York cross-town cars. The wildest stretch of imagination could only make a coincidence out of this. There are trillions of girls in cross-town cars dressed just like this one." "But the basket!" "Another coincidence. There are quadrillions of wicker baskets." "Not," said Brown, "with the contents of this one." "Why not?" Smith instinctively turned to look at the basket balanced daintily on the girl's knees. He strove to penetrate its wicker exterior with concentrated gaze. He could see nothing but wicker. "Well," he began angrily, "what _is_ in that basket? And how do _you_ know it--you lunatic?" "Will you believe me if I tell you?" "If you can offer any corroborative evidence----" "Well, then--there's a cat in that basket." "A--what?" "A cat." "How do you know?" "I don't know how I know, but there's a big, gray cat in that basket." "Why a _gray_ one?" "I can't tell, but it _is_ gray, and it has six toes on every foot." Smith truly felt that he was now being trifled with. "Brown," he said, trying to speak civilly, "if anybody in the five boroughs had come to me with affidavits and told me yesterday how you were going to behave this morning----" His voice, rising unconsciously as the realization of his outrageous wrongs dawned upon him, rang out above the rattle and grinding of the car, and the girl turned abruptly and looked straight at him and then at Brown. The pure, fearless beauty of the gaze, the violet eyes widening a little in surprise, silenced both young men. She inspected Brown for an instant, then turned serenely to her calm contemplation of the crowded street once more. Yet her dainty, close-set ears looked as though they were listening. The young men gazed at one another. "That girl is well bred," said Smith in a low, agitated voice. "You--you wouldn't think of venturing to speak to her!" "I'm obliged to, I tell you! This all happened before. I recognize everything as it occurs.... Even to your making a general nuisance of yourself." Smith straightened up. "I'm going to push you forcibly from this car. Do you remember _that_ incident?" [Illustration: "The lid of the basket tilted a little. Then a plaintive voice said 'Meow-w'."] "No," said Brown with conviction, "that incident did not happen. You only threatened to do it. I remember now."