“Oh!” exclaimed Babe, in feigned astonishment. “Why, Bearcat! I can’t take that.” Her hand folded over the bills.

“Sure, you can,” said the Bearcat. “It’s just a little present from me.”

“But you oughtn’t to do it,” Babe said, making the bills disappear into her purse.

“Now don’t say nothin’ more about it,” the Bearcat ordered. “I want you to look good when you’re with me.”

“Well, honey,” said Babe. “You’re one great pal.”

The Bearcat blushed.

“Of course,” he said. “I don’t want you to wear them dresses if you go out with other guys.”

“I ain’t goin’ out with other guys,” Babe assured him. “Nobody but you, honey.”

“You mean that?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, dear,” said Babe, with rounded eyes that seemed to be speaking the truth.

“All right,” said the Bearcat. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Babe, that I’m leavin’ for Buffalo tonight. I got a scrap on there next Tuesday night, an’ I got to do a lot of trainin’ up there beforehand.”

“Oh,” said Babe. “I’ll be awful lonesome while you’re away, dear, but you don’t need to fret, I won’t bother with no other fellows. I might go to the pictures or a show with Jenny, but that’s all.”

“If I win this fight, an’ I know I will, I’ll make a sweet little pile.”

“I’ll be rootin’ for you, honey. Even if I’m not there,” said Babe.

The Bearcat escorted Babe back to Goldstein’s and in the hallway of the building, when there was no one about, she gave him a warm kiss. Then, assuring her he would write to her while he was away, he went out.

Babe looked in her purse to be certain that the two hundred dollars was still there. Then she went up in the elevator, a contented smile on her face.

VI BABE AND CHARLIE

DURING the week that the Bearcat was in Buffalo, Babe received a letter from him every day. The notes were brief, and clumsily written, and while they could hardly have been called love letters, yet their general tone conveyed something of the Bearcat’s feeling for Babe. She herself wrote him one letter in which she offered him encouragement in his coming fight in the up-state city, and assured him she was being true to him. She had been careful in composing the letter, for she was shrewd enough to foresee that it might by chance fall under the eyes of Charlie Yates, and she had no intention of his getting anything on her in writing.