te brow in deep thought.

Jimmy regarded her with growing uneasiness. "What are you up to now?" he
asked.

"I don't know yet," mused Zoie, "BUT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TELL
AGGIE--that's ONE SURE thing." And she pinned him down with her eyes.

"I certainly will tell her," asserted Jimmy, with a wag of his very
round head. "Aggie is just the one to get you out of this."

"She's just the one to make things worse," said Zoie decidedly. Then
seeing Jimmy's hurt look, she continued apologetically: "Aggie MEANS
all right, but she has an absolute mania for mixing up in other people's
troubles. And you know how THAT always ends."

"I never deceived my wife in all my life," declared Jimmy, with an air
of self approval that he was far from feeling.

"Now, Jimmy," protested Zoie impatiently, "you aren't going to have
moral hydrophobia just when I need your help!"

"I'm not going to lie to Aggie, if that's what you mean," said Jimmy,
endeavouring not to wriggle under Zoie's disapproving gaze.

"Then don't," answered Zoie sweetly.

Jimmy never feared Zoie more than when she APPEARED to agree with him.
He looked at her now with uneasy distrust.

"Tell her the truth," urged Zoie.

"I will," declared Jimmy with an emphatic nod.

"And I'LL DENY IT," concluded Zoie with an impudent toss of her head.

"What!" exclaimed Jimmy, and he felt himself getting onto his feet.

"I've already denied it to Alfred," continued Zoie. "I told him I'd
never been in that restaurant without him in all my life, that the
waiter had mistaken someone else for me." And again she turned her back
upon Jimmy.

"But don't you see," protested Jimmy, "this would all be so very much
simpler if you'd just own up to the truth now, before it's too late?"

"It IS too late," declared Zoie. "Alfred wouldn't believe me now,
whatever I told him. He says a woman who lies once lies all the time.
He'd think I'd been carrying on with you ALL ALONG."

"Good Lord!" groaned Jimmy as the full realisation of his predicament
thrust itself upon him.

"We don't DARE tell him now," continued Zoie, elated by the demoralised
state to which she was fast reducing him. "For Heaven's sake, don't make
it any worse," she concluded; "it's bad enough as it is."

"It certainly is," agreed Jimmy, and he sank dejectedly into his chair.

"If you DO tell him," threatened Zoie from the opposite side of the
table, "I'll say you ENTICED me into the place."

"What!" shrieked Jimmy and a