"Gee," said Roy, waxing excited, "do you call it hard luck to get a chance at being a hero, twice in three months, and have all the girls falling down and worshiping you, and all the old ladies patting you on the back----" "I imagine that wouldn't have been particularly soothing," interrupted Grace, reaching, as always, for the ever-present candy box, "especially with poor Allen's back in the condition it was." "Yes," said Allen with a grimace, "if anybody'd started to patting me at that time, I'd have returned pat for pat--only mine wouldn't have been gentle. Two cents for your thoughts, Betty. You haven't said a word all the way." "Goodness, has the price of thoughts gone up with everything else?" queried Mollie, snatching a candy from under Grace's very nose. "Nobody ever offered me more than a penny for mine." "Probably they weren't worth it," said Roy, to be promptly subdued by a look from Mollie's black eyes. "As I was saying," he continued, hastily changing the subject. "I'd consider myself in luck if I'd rescued two beautiful damsels----" "They'd be the lucky ones," interrupted Mollie, with a smile. "From a burning building," he continued, undaunted. "It certainly was dramatic, Allen, old chap--we have to hand it to you." "I felt anything but dramatic at the time," said Allen ruefully. "The funny part of it is that I've always had a secret longing to do something of the sort--just to get the sensation. That," he paused dramatically, "cured me!" "I should think it would cure most anybody," said Mollie with a grimace. "Neither Betty or I are particularly light weights. I don't see how you managed it, Allen--in the heat and the smoke and everything." "Managed it," scoffed Roy. "Why, it isn't every fellow has the chance to hold two beauteous maidens in his arms----" "Still I might have picked out a more appropriate place," said Allen whimsically. "Tell me something, Frank," said Grace, taking another piece of candy and looking her prettiest at him. "Anything," he answered promptly. "Under the same conditions, would you have rushed into a burning house--to save me?" "Would I?" he replied with a fervor that made Grace jump and the rest laugh. "You just give me a chance; that's all. I'll show you!" "Goodness!" exclaimed Betty, twinkling. "I'll be afraid to sleep with Grace any more. She's apt to set the place on fire just to see what happens." "Good-bye, I'm going away from here," said Mollie, making a pretense of clambering out of the machine. "One fire is just about enough for me. Let me go, Roy Anderson--don't you dare to hold me." "Couldn't do anything pleasanter," said Roy cheerfully, at which Grace held up her hands in pretended horror. "Heavens, everybody's getting sentimental," she cried. "If we don't stop it, we'll just ruin everything, that's all. Look out for that dog, Frank!"