A girl! But oh, by Jove, _such_ a girl! A lovely, rosy blonde, dash it! Golden-haired angel--long, droopy kind of lashes, don't you know--eyes like dreamy sapphire seas--oh, that sort of thing--a peach! The leap that brought me to my feet sent my chair thudding backward. "Why--er--good evening," I managed to stammer. Just managed, you know, for, give you my word, I never was so bowled over in my life--never! And on the instant I guessed what it meant. The "kid" that Billings referred to wasn't a kid brother at all, but was a kid sister--girl, by Jove! "Are you busy?" I saw the flash of her perfect little teeth as her lips parted in a smile. "If not, may I talk to you a while?" I mumbled something designed to be pleasant--dash me if I know what--and managed to summon sense enough to lift toward her a wicker arm-chair. Then I dashed into my bedroom to chuck the smoking-jacket and get into a coat. And all the while I was thinking harder than I ever had thought it possible. Just the thing to have expected of an ass like Billings--a fellow with no sense of the proprieties! His kind of mind had never got any further than the fact that I had a guest-room and a quiet apartment. The further fact that it was in a bachelor apartment house and I a bachelor--and not yet out of my twenties, dash it--would never have presented itself to a chump like Billings as having any bearing on the matter. "Of course, I must get right over to the club and leave her in possession--it's the only thing left to do." This was my thought as I slipped into my coat and gave my hair a touch--just a touch, don't you know. The thing to do was to carry it off as naturally as possible for a few minutes, and then slip away. Probably she hadn't counted upon my being in town at all--had taken it for granted it was some sort of family apartment--with housekeeper, servant maids, all that sort of thing. "Never mind," I thought, as I kicked off my half-shoes and jerked on the first things at hand. "Thing to do now is to keep that child's mind from being distressed. She'll have a good sleep and get off early in the morning on the Albany boat. Don't suppose she'd understand, anyhow--sweet, innocent, unsophisticated thing like that. What a fool Billings is!" And I jammed in savagely the turquoise matrix pin with which I was replacing the pearl, because it went better with my tie. "Now, just a few minutes of conversation to put her at her ease," I reflected, "and then I'm off. I'll get the janitor's wife to come up and stay near her." And I dashed back, murmuring some jolly rubbish of apology. And then I just brought up speechless--almost fell over backward. For as she stood there under the light, I saw that what I had taken for a dress of black silk was not a dress at all, but a suit of pajamas--black, filmy pajamas, whose loose elegance concealed but could not wholly deny the goddess-like figure within.